Poison and Wine
by SilentShade
Summary: Distance is deadly, as Sebastian begins to realize. His time away has tarnished some of his most cherished relationships, so he turns to an unlikely friend. But what happens when their friendship turns into something more? And which path do you choose when history repeats itself, leaving you stranded in a web of rejected love and unspoken lies?
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! So I couldn't mention it in the summary, since I have a limited number of characters, but this is a sequel to my first fic **_**Teenage Dream. **_**But no worries if you haven't read it, it isn't that hard to follow and I've included a brief summary. If you have read it, then just scroll down : )**

**Summary:**

_Shortly after the announcement of the Warblers' disqualification from Sectionals, Sebastian goes after the person he believes to be responsible, Sam. Now of course he realises that the actual person at fault here is Hunter, since it was by his hand that they were forced to take the steroids, resulting in the show-choir group being stripped of their victory. Not thinking entirely logically, Sebastian attacks Sam and the two engage in a fist fight, eventually ending in Sam going to the hospital and Sebastian paying for it. Literally. _

_Blaine then confronts Sebastian, demanding to know why he did what he did. But the former Warbler captain refuses to talk, causing Blaine to walk away furiously. That night Sam gets a visit from none other than the assaultee himself, who gives a feeble attempt at an apology before leaving abruptly, leaving Sam very confused. By morning Sam is entirely convinced that Sebastian is going to attempt suicide, and calls Blaine in a panic, voicing his fears. The pair rush to Dalton, only to find out that Sam had been right. Then with the help of Hunter and Jeff, they attempt to awaken the unconscious boy. Not long after this, Blaine is left alone with the presumed dead Sebastian, and proceeds to sing to him as well as kiss him as a token of goodbye. The song is 'Poison and Wine' by The Civil Wars (hence the name of the sequel). When Jeff announces that Sebastian is indeed alive, Blaine instantly feels guilty for the kiss. _

_At the hospital it is proclaimed that Sebastian will make a full recovery. Blaine is also introduced to the aforementioned Warbler's younger sister, Olivia, who seems to instantly dislike the curly-haired brunette._

_Sam and Blaine get into a fight, and the former pays a visit to Sebastian. Later that same night, Blaine also goes to see Sebastian, whose sole intent is to get out of the hospital. Blaine tries to stop him, but fails thanks to former's strange intimidation tactics. The following Monday Sebastian goes back to school, only to find out that he'd been expelled. Jeff pays a visit to him that day, trying to cheer him up, but ends up doing the opposite, since Sebastian confesses to him that his family hates him and refuses to pay for him to go to another school, meaning there was no way he could graduate, considering he himself didn't possess the kind of money required for school tuition. Not long after this, Sebastian phones Blaine, asking for his help. The latter, who just found out that Kurt had a new boyfriend, is slightly surprised but heads to Dalton immediately as per Sebastian's instructions. Once there, he quickly learns that Sebastian wants him to speak to Jeff, strongly believing that the blonde Warbler is secretly gay. Blaine is more than surprised by this, but agrees to try and help. It doesn't go well, and Jeff storms away angrily. But Blaine does find out about Sebastian's family troubles, learning that his parents were kicking him out. He offers his own house to the taller boy, but gets rejected. Blaine also suggests that maybe Sebastian should just talk to his parents, but this idea is also rejected. _

_However, Sam manages to get him to change his mind, and so a few nights later, Blaine accompanies Sebastian to his parents' house…or mansion to be more accurate. The confrontation takes a turn for the worst, and ends with Blaine physically assaulting both Sebastian's father and older brother. Only after this does Sebastian agree to spend the night at Blaine's house. The next day Jeff confesses to Sebastian that he was right, that he is in fact gay, but was too scared to tell anyone the truth. He starts crying and the brunette Warbler comforts him. Later, Blaine and Sebastian get into a very loud verbal argument and the latter storms out of The Lima Bean, and heads back to Dalton since Jeff needed to talk to him. The two talk for a while, and Jeff kisses Sebastian, who tells his friend that it can't happen again. Sebastian then goes back to Blaine's house, since the shorter teen hadn't stopped calling him since their fight. Once at the house Blaine tells Sebastian about an old friend of his, Jordan, who lost his legs all because Blaine had been too much of coward to be honest with himself and everyone else. Sebastian then forgives him and spends yet another night at his house. _

_That same night Blaine learns about the former boy's tendency to have night-terrors, having been awoken by Sebastian's screams. He tells Blaine that it's no big deal and begs him not to ask questions. The latter starts to suspect that something was going on in the other teen's life, something that he was doing a really good job of keeping a secret. Blaine's suspicions are confirmed a few days later when he walks in on Sebastian throwing up in the bathroom, having been convinced to eat something for the first time in days the night before. Sebastian is clearly upset and tries to leave, but Blaine manages to stop him. When the latter enquires if the former has an eating disorder, Sebastian refuses to answer the question. Shortly afterwards, Cooper arrives unexpectedly, but refuses to elaborate as to why he came. _

_Blaine heads to Dalton in an attempt to find Jeff, but runs into Hunter instead. Hunter confirms a theory that he's had all along; Sebastian's father had been physically abusing him for years, ever since he came out when he was 13. Later that same night Cooper confesses the real reason he came to Ohio, that their parents are thinking about getting divorced and that the pair of them were undergoing marriage counselling in an attempt to rekindle what they seemed to have lost somewhere along the way. This news depresses Blaine, who convinces Sebastian to tell him the truth about everything that he'd kept a secret. It is revealed that Sebastian suffers from two different kinds of eating disorders and recurring clinical depression stemming from all the years of abuse at home. In an attempt to comfort him, Blaine ends up almost kissing Sebastian, but gets interrupted when Sam and Tina walk in on them. Tina gets furious and scolds Blaine for not telling him about the former Warbler staying at his house. The next day at school, it is obvious that Tina was blowing things out of proportion when she told everyone else in glee club that Blaine was 'fraternizing with the enemy'. His friends temporarily stop speaking to him._

_Later that week Sebastian drags Blaine with him to Scandals, where the former applies for a job, and narrowly escapes sexual harassment, thanks to Blaine. The pair also run into Dave Karofsky, who's in town visiting his father._

_The next night Cooper tells his brother that it was official, that their parents were going to get divorced. Sebastian is determined to cheer him up, but ends up scaring himself when he realises how much he had allowed himself to care for the other teen. The next morning it's Blaine turn to be scared when Sebastian collapses onto the floor, holding a hand over his heart. He momentarily thinks the taller boy is having a heart attack, but soon realises it's actually just shortness of breath, or as Sebastian called it, Dyspnea. Later that night, in Blaine's car, he reveals that he's dying. They head to The Lima Bean for coffee, but end up getting way more than they bargained for, when Sebastian storms into the bathroom after seeing that Kurt was phoning his ex-boyfriend. Blaine soon follows him and listens as Sebastian confesses how sad and scared he actually is, and how he fears that he's never going to get better. Blaine responds by telling Sebastian something that no one had ever told him before, that he loves him._

_Not long after they get back to Blaine's house, an argument ensues, which ends with the shorter brunette making promises to Sebastian that the latter is convinced he can't keep. It is also revealed that Sebastian suffers from Congenital Heart Disorder._

_Blaine and Kurt's friendship begin to develop again, much to Sebastian's dismay, who takes an instant liking to the new captain of the Warblers, Dominic. Sebastian's brother phones him to let him know that he has inherited $250, 000 from their father. It is later revealed that Blaine actually made Mr. Smythe give his son that money, threatening to take him to the police if he didn't. _

_Sebastian decides to use this money instantly to find himself other accommodation, since he knew that Mrs. Anderson didn't like him staying at her house. Blaine isn't happy with this, but knows there isn't much he can do about it. That night Sebastian suffers from another night-terror and ends up sharing Blaine's bed. _

_As Blaine goes to Mr. Schue's wedding, where he has been asked to sing a duet with Kurt; Sebastian heads to the Clarington residence to see Dominic, since he, along with his twin sister, had been adopted by Hunter's parents years ago. Sebastian and Dominic spend some time talking, before the latter kisses the former, surprising them both. _

_The next day Sebastian makes two realizations: the first being that Blaine and Kurt had slept together, and the second being that he was in love with Blaine. This freaks him out completely and he agrees to go out with a very sexually-confused Dominic in an attempt to move on from someone he knew wouldn't return his feelings. This doesn't go well and Sebastian ends up arguing with Santana and Kurt in the middle of The Lima Bean, where the former punches him. Blaine sees the whole thing, but makes no attempt to stand up for his now-injured friend or to even acknowledge their friendship. This angers and hurts Sebastian, who makes the announcement later that night that he is leaving Ohio. Blaine begs and pleads and apologizes, but Sebastian remains adamant. They kiss for the first time, and Sebastian confesses the last thing he had been keeping from Blaine…that he had been raped as a young boy._

_The next morning when Blaine wakes up, Sebastian is already gone, but has left a note confessing his feelings and stating that he will be living with his newly-discovered aunt. The note also says that Sebastian has one last surprise for the other teen, which turns out to be Blaine's old best friend from middle school, Jordan. _

_3 months go by with absolutely no communication between the two boys, but this changes when Blaine falls into a lake and almost drowns, saved at the last minute by Sam, Jeff, Jordan, Dominic and Hunter. Sebastian instantly heads back to Lima in a panic, and when he gets there, Cooper tells him that Blaine has been in a coma ever since the accident two days before. That night Sebastian does something he hasn't done in years: he prays. And sure enough, his prayers are answered, as Blaine wakes up. Things just go downhill from there._

_Blaine's parents forbid Sebastian from going near their son, Sebastian gets into a fight with Kurt and ends up punching him, and this spirals into a fight between Blaine and Sebastian, where the former claims that he had lied about keeping the promises he had made all those months ago. He also claims that he doesn't actually love Sebastian, that he had mistaken intensity for actual feelings. This breaks the heart of the taller boy, who leaves the hospital immediately and spends the night crying on a park bench._

_A few weeks later Kurt tells Blaine that he wants the two of them to get back together. This leaves Blaine confused, and Sebastian adds to that confusion when the former finds him waiting in his bedroom. They fight again and Sebastian confesses the extent of his feelings for Blaine and what he had meant to him. The two kiss, but as Blaine quickly realizes, it was only part of Sebastian's quest for vengeance. They start arguing again, resulting in Sebastian wanting to leave. Blaine kisses him one last time as Sebastian explains that he isn't planning to come back. It ends with Blaine sinking to his knees, overcome with regret._

…

**A/N: This is where I want to once again say thanks to each and everyone who followed/favorited/reviewed Teenage Dream! It is because of all of you that I have the inspiration to keep writing : ) Oh, and I also want to mention that I will no longer be writing in first person point of view, but in third. So here it is and I really hope you guys like it : )**

_Sebastian gaped at the man in front of him, who bit his lip nervously and went down on one knee. The man reached into his jacket and Sebastian knew exactly what he was reaching for before he even had a chance to see it…a jeweler's box. The box opened to reveal a silver ring. "I know this seems crazy and sudden, I know that we're young, and I know that things are confusing right now. But I also know that the thought of spending the rest of my life with you causes butterflies to appear in my stomach and my heart to beat so fast that I'm pretty sure anyone in a 5-mile radius could hear it. And the thought of being able to call you mine makes me dizzy with happiness. With you by my side I would never even think about another man, I wouldn't need to, because I'd have everything I ever wanted and more. I'd have you. I love you more than words could ever say and I'd always be right by your side, whether it's to smile when you smile or to hold you when you cry, I'll be there. You're everything to me and you always will be, so would you please do me the humongous honor of marrying me?"_

_Sebastian couldn't do anything but stare into the anxious eyes of the man who was asking him to become his fiancé. Strangely enough, the first thing that went through his mind was the series of events that had led up to this moment. If someone back then had predicted he'd be in this situation right now, he would have laughed in their face. People aren't kidding when they say that life has some interesting surprises in store, or in his case, a lot of interesting surprises. And they weren't all good. Sebastian almost smiled when he thought back to the day it had all started. The day he had returned to New York…_

Sebastian was about to knock, but quickly decided against it; after all, it was the look of surprise on her face that he was dying to see. _No pun intended, _he thought dryly to himself. He broke into a smile when he realized that the front door was unlocked, and stepped inside, not entirely sure what to expect. The house looked exactly the same as he remembered it, beside some minor details, such as the additional photo frames that lined the walls. Sebastian didn't even bother to examine them, instead he ventured further into the house, both nervous and excited about running into one of the residents. These emotions quickly turned to confusion as he finished inspecting the final empty bedroom. _Where was everyone? _He let out a small sigh of disappointment before going back to the front of the house, already coming up with a new plan. This time though, when he passed the array of photos decorating the main hallway, he paused to look at them, more out of boredom than anything else. Something formed at the back of his throat when he saw that an extra person had been added to the family photographs…him. There was the picture that had been taken on his senior picture day at Dalton Academy, there was the one that had been taken at Elliot's 12th birthday when the birthday boy had been given a camera, only to take pictures of absolutely everything in sight (including his excruciatingly bored younger brother), and the third was the most recent one of all. It was a picture of him and-

"Sebastian?" Alex said. Sebastian almost jumped when his slightly-older cousin appeared out of nowhere.

"Hey." He smiled nervously.

"Hi…" Alex stared at him with fast-blinking eyes and a slightly-slack jaw. Of course, if the roles had been reversed, Sebastian would probably have reacted in the exact same way. After all, it had been 29 months since the last time he had set foot on American soil. Yes, he had been counting.

"How've you been?"

"Uh, fine. This is really weird." Alex commented, taking a step forward.

"Are you mad at me?" Sebastian decided it was pointless to waste time, so he cut straight to the chase. He still felt guilty about his sudden (and somewhat unannounced) departure.

"I don't know. Should I be?"

Sebastian considered this for a moment. "Well, from your point of view, yes."

"What about your point of view?" He arched an eyebrow.

"Considering how guilty I feel about leaving the way I did, still yes. For what it's worth, I'm really sorry." Sebastian offered meekly.

"It isn't me you need to apologize to, it's my mom. For two and a half years she had no idea if you were even still alive, never mind where the hell you were. She didn't deserve that and you know it." Alex explained, his face hard.

"Yes, I do. Look, I can't change what I did, even though I really wish I could. You guys are the only real family I have and I repayed your kindness by fleeing the country with nothing more than a letter in the mail telling you that I'm leaving. That was stupid, mean and immature of me, and once again, I'm really sorry. But you and Arielle and Riley also happen to be the only reason I came back."

"Is that supposed to count for anything? 'Cos it doesn't. You're a selfish jerk who's so damn used to looking out for himself that he can't see how his actions might affect someone who really cares about him. And just for the record, that someone is my mom, not me." The hard expression on his face turned to a glare.

"You're right…about everything. I am selfish and I am immature, I do tend to put myself before others, and I know I can be oblivious sometimes. Well actually, I can be very oblivious sometimes, but none of that is intentional, I swear. It's one of the reasons I left in the first place, to grow up." Sebastian admitted truthfully.

"And how'd that go for you?" Alex asked.

"Good and bad, I guess. You know, if you don't want me to see Arielle, then I'd understand…but I just really missed her and I came to tell her that I'm okay. In some ways I'm better than ever." Sebastian didn't think now was a good time to point out the other reason he had come back to the US.

"Well that's great news," He commented sarcastically, "I can't stop you from seeing her, I can't stop you from becoming a part of her life again, but what I can do is tell you that I don't want any part of it. So do what you want but leave me alone." Alex walked past him and exited the house, slamming the door behind him.

Sebastian heaved a sigh and slouched his shoulders. He had been afraid of this. He probably deserved it, but it didn't mean it was easy. These people had accepted him, they had made him feel like he belonged, like he was a part of the family, and then his way of thanking them was a spontaneous decision to flee the country without as much as a 'goodbye' to anyone. He had sent them a letter explaining that he was no longer in America and that he was fine, but that it may be a while before they see him again. That was it. This was more than 2 years ago, so he hadn't really been anticipating the warmest of welcomes, but he hadn't expected there to be contempt. Not that it really came as a surprise, considering the circumstances. The only thing going through Sebastian's mind right now was hope that Arielle wouldn't react in a similar manner to her son…he didn't know how he would possibly survive if she looked at him the same as Alex had.

The only problem now was actually finding his aunt, since she obviously wasn't at home. For a second he considered phoning her, but decided against it when he realized that would be a cowardly way of letting her know that he was back. It was a Saturday, so there was no way she would be at work right now, and he had no clue if she had any places that she regular-ed, so he wasn't sure what to do. There were also the options of phoning either Alex or Riley, but Alex would probably not even pick up and Riley didn't usually have her phone with her during the day, and even if she did, Sebastian wouldn't be surprised if she too ignored his call. Maybe he could just wait until she came back? But it was only 11 O Clock in the morning, he could be waiting for an entire day, contemplating all the things that Alex had said, eventually coming to the conclusion that seeing Arielle was a bad idea. Sometimes he really was his own worst enemy.

_There has to be some other way of finding her…think! _

Just as this thought escaped his mind, another one entered. He knew exactly where to start looking.

…

Sebastian kept biting at his nails as he walked up the long pathway to the front of the large house. Chewing his nails was a habit he had acquired during a particular stressful period about 10 months ago. He took a deep breath before knocking on the door in front of him. The minute it took for someone to open felt like the longest of his life.

"Sebastian?" She blinked at him. It was Sarah Crawford, the only close friend of his aunt's that he knew about.

"Hi, Mrs. Crawford. I'm sorry to just drop by unannounced, but I'm actually in search of Arielle. Do you by any chance know where she might be?" Sebastian wore a friendly smile.

"Um," Sarah seemed more than a little flustered, "not at this exact moment, but-don't you maybe want to come in for a bit?"

"Sure, thanks." He shrugged. It's not like he was pressed for time, and it was really good to see a familiar face who didn't seem to hate his guts. Sebastian walked past her and noticed that, just like his aunt's house, everything looked pretty much exactly the same. Then again, he didn't actually know any people who had a habit of shifting furniture around every few years. When he turned back around, he noticed that Sarah was staring at him. "What?" He asked, suddenly self-conscious.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. It's just that you look so much different, yet exactly the same. It's strange." She smiled.

"I look different? Maybe it's the hair. A friend of mine convinced me to let it grow a bit longer."

"No, I don't think it's that. Maybe I'm just imagining things. Side-effect of getting old." Sarah chuckled.

"Please, you are not old. So, do you know where Arielle is?" Sebastian asked hopefully.

"Like I said, I don't know where she is right now, but she said she was coming over around lunchtime. You are more than welcome to wait here if you want, I would love to see the look on her face when she sees you. Arielle is going to be absolutely delighted; she's missed you terribly." She led him into a room that strongly resembled a living room, beside the fact that it didn't have a TV. She then gestured for Sebastian to sit down before taking the seat next to him.

"You don't think she's going to be mad that I left so suddenly without even a 'goodbye'?" He wondered.

"No, I don't think so. She's spoken about you a lot since you left, and none of the words that came out of her mouth was angry. She was mostly worried, that's all."

"I should have contacted her to let her know that I was okay, maybe even have told her where I was." Sebastian sighed.

"Why didn't you?"

Sebastian paused momentarily. He wasn't sure if he should tell her, but decided to do it anyway. "See, I left so that I could go somewhere no one knew me, somewhere where my past wouldn't constantly come back to bite me in the ass. I needed to go to a place like this so that I could figure out who I was and what I wanted without interference from anyone or anything. I desperately wanted to grow up. And I had this strange theory that if I stayed in touch with people who were connected to my old life, then I would no longer have a clear and objective mind, meaning it would all have just been a waste of time. I know it seems kinda stupid, but it made sense to me."

"Did it work? Did you achieve what you strived for?" Sarah asked curiously.

A smile crept onto his lips as a few memories flooded into his mind. "Yes. Yes, I did. You could definitely say that I have a newfound respect for what it means to be an adult."

"Hmmm," She nodded, "how old are you now?"

"21 in February."

Sarah smiled again. "Last time I saw you, you were barely 18. I can't believe that so much time has gone by."

"Neither can I. I got off the plane earlier this morning, and it was almost like I never even left. Like absolutely nothing has changed. Almost like time has been frozen for the last 2 and a half years."

"Well I have wrinkles to prove otherwise." She chuckled and he laughed too.

"Mom, have you by any chance seen my phone anywhere?" Another British voice, this one male, said. A second later Adam Crawford stepped into the room. He froze when he saw Sebastian. "Oh, I'm sorry, I had no idea you had company."

"You remember Sebastian, don't you? Arielle's nephew." Sarah addressed her son.

Before Adam had a chance to reply, Sebastian snorted. "I passed out in his dining room, I'd say it's safe to assume that's a memorable first impression."

Adam, who obviously found the comment amusing, smiled. "It's nice to see you again. Been a while."

"Yeah." Sebastian returned the smile, once again thinking how amazing everything sounded when it came from Adam's mouth. This was a strange observation considering where he had been for the last few years.

"Oh yes, speaking of phones, I promised your father that I would call him," Sarah said to her son before turning to me and saying, "Excuse me."

Adam's face quickly fell. "Why do you keep talking to him?"

"Not this again, sweetheart." She said with a pointed look before leaving the room.

Sarah's departure cast the room into an awkward silence. Adam didn't really know what to say to Sebastian, but he also didn't want to be rude and just leave the poor boy sitting here by himself. And it didn't help that brunette was staring at him, obviously trying to figure something out for himself. When Adam couldn't take it anymore, he blurted out, "So what brings you back to town?"

"Someone's dying wish." Was his response. Adam expected Sebastian to start laughing like it was a joke, but instead his face remained straight.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Adam replied, more uncomfortable than ever.

Sebastian leaned forward. "Don't worry, no one's going to die. That was sort of the point."

Adam just stared at him.

"Lighten up, blondie. It was just a joke." Sebastian grinned, but something on his face alerted Adam to the fact that maybe it hadn't actually been a joke.

"Death is usually funny." He remarked, causing Sebastian to narrow his eyes slightly.

"Sheesh, pull that stick out of your ass already. What's wrong? The man of your dreams never called you back after a night filled with wild passion?" Sebastian smirked.

"Funny," Adam said, an almost unnoticeable smile present on his features. He wasn't taking the taller male seriously. "But I feel like I have to inform you, they _always _call me back."

Sebastian laughed, and the tension left the room.

"I suppose you're waiting for your aunt?" Adam wondered out loud as he sat down opposite the former Warbler.

"You supposed right. But just a warning, if her reaction is anything like her son's, then things could get really awkward for you and Mrs. Crawford."

"Well I wouldn't know what Alex's reaction was, but I can practically guarantee you that you will not be disappointed with Mrs. Burke's. For about a year after you left, you were practically all she talked about." He said.

"Really? What did she say?" Sebastian was curious.

Adam looked like he was about to say something, but quickly stopped himself and stared at the man across from him before finally going with, "I don't really know. It was never me she was speaking to, it was my mom. I don't like listening in on other people's conversations."

Although Sebastian didn't believe him, he decided not to pursue the matter. He changed the subject instead. "Assuming that you're no longer in NYADA, what are you doing now?"

"Good question," He chuckled, "Well I help out with the theatre freshman at NYADA sometimes, and other times I do backstage stuff at pretty much any musical production in the state of New York. How about you?"

"Yeah, also a good question. Now that I'm back in the US, I suppose I'm going to have to find another job." Sebastian admitted with a mental groan.

"Wait, you left the country?" Adam's eyes widened slightly. "Where did you go?"

"That is a really long story for another time. But I will give you a hint, the accents there are _amazing_." He grinned.

"That narrows it down…somewhat." But Sebastian barely heard him, because it was at that moment that he heard a knock on the door. He tensed up like crazy and his heart picked up.

"Do you wanna answer it?" Adam asked him.

Sebastian shook his head.

"I will. Come with me." He rose and looked at the younger male expectantly until he too got up. Sebastian wasn't aware of anything except the sound of his heart as the pair walked toward the front door. And when it opened, revealing Arielle Burke, his heart went to the other extreme and almost stopped. His aunt stared at him with wide eyes and an open jaw. Adam took a few steps backwards to give the two some privacy.

"Sebastian." Arielle eventually managed to breathe.

"Hi." He also spoke in a whisper. Before Sebastian could even blink, his aunt stepped forward and threw her arms around his neck. He wrapped his own arms around her back and rested his head on top of hers, closing his eyes. He felt so happy in that moment; he completely forgot to feel guilty. But as soon as she pulled away to look him in the eyes, it came back.

"I can't believe you're actually here." She looked like she was on the verge of tears. "You're all grown up."

"I'm really sorry." Sebastian was still whispering. He didn't trust his voice.

"Don't be. You're okay and you're here now; you have nothing to apologize for." Arielle took his hands in hers and squeezed.

"You don't hate me?" He was confused.

"Hate you? Why would you ever think that? I know you left because you had some things to figure out, and I could never be mad at you for being brave enough to move on with your life."

"But I was gone for over two years and I never even bothered to let you know that I was still alive." Sebastian blinked. To him it seemed as if his aunt didn't understand, but to her, he was the one who didn't.

"And I'm sure you had your reasons. Sebastian, anyone who knows _you_ also knows that you are an extremely independent person; you are going to go off and do things that you want to do, and I accept that. Believe it or not, I used to be just like you when I was younger." Arielle smiled affectionately.

"I missed you." Sebastian hugged her again. He couldn't believe how accepting she was of it all; she didn't seem even the slightest bit mad at him. This was better than any of scenarios that had played out in his head. Then again, they hadn't exactly been the hardest to top, considering one of them had ended with his aunt beating him up with a beer bottle. Which was made even more confusing by the fact that Arielle didn't drink alcohol.

"I missed you too." She whispered into his chest, before pulling away again and frowning up at him. "What brings you to Sarah's house?"

"I came to find you. You weren't home, and this is the first place that I thought of." Sebastian shrugged.

"Damn, I missed it." Mrs. Crawford said from behind them.

"Missed what?" My aunt frowned.

"Your face." Adam and Sebastian offered simultaneously.

"Oh," She chuckled, "Sarah, can I take a rain-check? My handsome nephew and I have a lot to talk about."

"Of course. I have no social life whatsoever, so I'm always free." Mrs. Crawford smiled.

"Thank you." Sebastian said to both Adam and his mother before following his aunt out of the house. They had almost reached Arielle's car when his heart reminded him of the second reason he had returned to New York. It was as he watched the smile on her face that he made a mental decision to keep that information to himself. At least for now. At least until he had found a way to solve that particular problem.

…

**A/N: I am really nervous and excited about finally posting this, although I'm not entirely sure why…**

**Please tell me what you thought : )**


	2. Chapter 2

Blaine opened his eyes and yawned, smiling when he realized what day it was. Reaching over and grabbing his watch, he saw that it was only 8:30, almost an entire hour before he was supposed to head over to _Hartley's. _With a sigh, he sat up and craned his neck to see if his roommate, Paul Garner, was still sleeping. The two shared bunk-beds, with Blaine at the bottom. It only took him a second to see that Paul's bed was vacant. So was the bed at the opposite side of the room, which belonged to Blaine's other roommate, Diego Montez.

Patting his hair down, Blaine walked into the kitchen where he figured all his suite-mates would be at this time of the morning. Sure enough, there stood all five of them.

"Morning, _amigo._" Diego grinned at him.

Blaine gave a half-hearted wave in response. He was still too asleep for his brain to function properly.

"I told you not to stay up until 3 in the morning." Paul told him with a pointed look.

"Well I'm just happy I got those essays finished; now I can relax for the next two days." Blaine yawned again.

"Or you could do what the rest of us do…leave all your work until the very last second, then stress your ass off trying to get it all done in time." Gabriel Simmons shrugged with a smile.

"As appealing as that may sound, I think I'll stick to my method. Procrastinating has never really been my thing." He returned the smile before taking the seat next to Gabriel, all the while focusing on keeping his eyes open.

"So when is your boyfriend getting here?" Paul mocked.

With a tired look, Blaine said, "He is not my boyfriend. You should know that considering you've actually met the guy I'm dating on several occasions."

"Heh," Paul shrugged, "How was I supposed to know that you're a one-man kind of guy?"

Rolling his eyes, Blaine turned back to Gabriel. "So what are your plans for the weekend?"

"Um, I'm actually gonna go see someone." He avoided Blaine's gaze.

"Hmmm, sounds interesting," He grinned curiously, "Who is she?"

"Just someone I know." Gabriel looked away shyly.

"I guess we're just going to have to follow you to find out." One of the other guys, Bryan, suggested.

"What? No! You can't do that!" Gabriel went white.

"Relax, man, it was just a joke." Bryan, along with everyone else, frowned in confusion at the intensity of their suite-mate's outburst.

"Right…yeah…sorry." He mumbled feebly.

"Anyway," Diego tried to distract the attention away from Gabriel, "Did you guys hear about Dylan Freeman?"

"No. What about him?" Bryan wondered. Dylan was kind of a celebrity among the students of The New School; his father was a relatively well-known actor and his mother was a fashion designer. Dylan was a classically trained singer, and despite the fact that Blaine was going for a Bachelor's degree in fine arts, they had never actually met. In fact, none of the boys in the suite had ever met him.

"He's seeing someone." Paul replied with a secretive smirk before Diego had the chance.

"That's a first. Who is she? Maybe one of us knows her." The sixth and final male in room, Richard Avery, said.

"See, that's the catch," He paused for dramatic effect and leaned forward on his elbows, "It's not a _she _at all. It's a dude."

Blaine's jaw dropped slightly, "You can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm very serious. Turns out Mr. Freeman plays on your team, Anderson."

"Does his, uh, boyfriend go here?" Richard asked.

"Nope, he's like 24 or something." Diego shrugged.

"Is he famous too?" Bryan pulled a face when he burnt his tongue taking a sip of coffee.

"Doubt it, I've never heard his name before. I think its Adam Crawford or something."

Blaine choked on his own coffee. "What?"

Everyone turned to look at him, but it was Paul who spoke. "Do you know him?"

"I've never actually met the guy, but yeah. He's Kurt's ex." He explained.

Diego started chuckling. "You're dating someone who used to date a guy who is now dating a celebrity's kid."

"I guess so." Blaine agreed.

"Are Kurt and Adam still friends?" Bryan looked moderately excited.

"Not really, Adam's kind of an asshole."

"Damn! There goes my chance to meet Gregory Freeman." He groaned.

"You poor thing." Diego shot Bryan a look.

"Why did Adam and Kurt break up?" Gabriel seemed to have returned to normal.

"Umm, because of me, I guess." Blaine admitted uneasily.

"And you say _he's _the asshole?" Bryan arched an eyebrow.

"Just because you have some sort of demented crush on Dylan's father does not mean you can say things like that." Gabriel told him. Blaine smiled as Bryan scowled.

"I didn't do it on purpose. I didn't even know until after Adam had already broken up with him. I was a little distracted with my _almost dying _at the time."

"But you still had feelings for Kurt? Even whilst he was dating Adam?" Gabriel wondered.

"Well, yeah." He nodded.

"Did you see anyone else in that period?" Gabriel pressed. Blaine had no idea why his friend was asking all these questions, but he couldn't help but feel like he was being interrogated.

"Why do you want to know?" Blaine said.

"No reason." Gabriel looked away again.

"Now I'm kinda curious. Did you make out with anyone else?" Paul grinned and raised an eyebrow.

"Umm," Blaine's mind was momentarily functioning on auto-pilot and therefore he had no control over the memories and images that flashed through his head at that second. He did everything in his power to try to ignore them, but it was easier said than done and before he knew it, he was picturing the very face that still haunted his dreams from time to time. The combination of those bright green eyes, high cheekbones, soft brown hair and heart-stopping smile still almost took his breath away every time he saw it. Not because of the handsomeness of the man in his memories, but because of the pain that accompanied it to this very day.

"You okay, man?" Paul frowned.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Can we talk about something else please?" He did his best to present a believable smile, but didn't have much luck.

"Sure. I need some help with something anyway…anyone know anything about the polarity of ions?" Richard sounded ignorantly hopeful.

Blaine wasn't really paying attention anymore. He had been successfully distracted by something that would probably be inhabiting his mind until something even more distracting happened. That's how it always happened; he would see something or hear something that would remind Blaine of _him_ and then he wouldn't be able to think of anything, or _anyone_, for hours. It was damn annoying. And confusing, considering it had been over two years since the last time the pair had seen each other or even spoken, so why he was still constantly occupying Blaine's thoughts was an absolute mystery. Sometimes he would find himself wondering 'what if?', but then he would quickly reprimand himself for even going there. He was happy now, in his life, his friends, his education, his family, and in his relationship, so there was absolutely no point in giving thought to something that he had no power over.

But Blaine would let himself hope. Hope that his old friend was just as happy as he was; that his life was everything he had ever hoped for. That _he _never spent hours feeling miserable about past mistakes and regrets. That _he _had finally started to realize his vast potential and used it to build a promising life for himself. That _he _was finally whole enough to commit to another person and to reap the rewards that came with giving your heart to another. It was this last one that Blaine often found himself distracted by. This was where the guilt would step in and make him wish that he had known back then what he knew now. If he had, if he could actually rewind time, then he would certainly not make the same mistake twice. And despite the quantity of times he would ponder this, he still didn't have the faintest idea what he would have done differently. These were one of those moments where he would praise the Lord that he was not a teenager anymore. Everything was so complicated back then…or was that just one particular person? Either way, he was definitely relieved that that part of his life was over. Or was he?

…

Blaine tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for his friend to arrive. The two hadn't seen each other in a while, which considering that they lived in the same state was probably a little weird, but then again, they were both very busy with their studies. Especially his friend, since he was studying to become a surgeon. A surgeon! Blaine still couldn't believe it. He had always known the guy was intelligent, but hadn't anticipated the extent of his ambition. He had never been more proud of him.

And right now, he was especially not proud of him, considering he was already 10 minutes late. Under any other circumstances this wouldn't have bothered him, but factor in his excitement and nervousness, and you have a very impatient 20-year old.

Blaine had just about sighed for the 80th time in the last 15 minutes, when he saw the familiar golden-brown hair walk through the door of the secluded café. He jumped up, knocking the table in the process, before rushing forward with a huge grin. "Hey, Jordy."

"How many more times am I going to have to beg you not to call me that?" Jordan chuckled as he embraced his shorter friend.

"As many times as you like, but I doubt it's going to stop me." He replied, still grinning.

They sat down at the table Blaine had vacated a few seconds earlier and just stared at each other until they both burst out laughing. "You know, every time I see you, you seem happier." Jordan smiled warmly.

"I didn't seem happy to you before?" Blaine frowned.

"When Sebastian called me to come back to Ohio almost 3 years ago, no you didn't," Blaine flinched at the mention of Sebastian's name, but Jordan didn't notice. Or if he did, he wasn't letting on. "But then just before your high school graduation, you seemed more miserable than I think I've ever seen you. And what worried me was that it wasn't the obvious kind of unhappiness; it was the more deep-rooted kind that almost always goes unnoticed. It takes someone who's been there himself to detect it, and I did."

Blaine stared at him again, this time studying his eyes for any clues, but none were found. "How come you never asked me about it?"

"Because I knew you would never have told me if I had. But I guess whatever it is must have worked itself out, because you seem really happy now. You remind me of that same 12-year old boy who would argue that the Hulk was probably bipolar, and that Adolf Hitler was only as angry as he was because of how ugly he was. I missed that boy." Jordan was still smiling.

"I still stick by my theories." Blaine chuckled.

Jordan laughed too. "So what's new with you?"

"Not much. Compared to some of the kids at that school, I feel significantly un-talented. And compared to others, I feel significantly stupid. But beside that, I absolutely love it there. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm getting to do what I've always dreamed of doing. Once I've gotten my Bachelor's degree, I can become anything. So many doors would have opened for me. What about you, Mr. Future Doctor?"

"Well, I'm going to be a surgeon…what more is there to say? When I'm done, I can save lives and heal people; I can give back everything that's ever been given to me. Just saying that out loud makes my heart beat fast and causes this silly grin to appear on my face. There are no words to tell you how excited I am." Jordan grinned happily, which also made Blaine happy.

"Have I ever told you how proud I am of you?" The words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

"Why?" Jordan chuckled.

"Because you're just so…inspiring. Everything about you makes me feel like an inadequate friend, and I feel like no matter what I do or how hard I try I could never be as amazing as you are by simply being yourself. Did S-" Blaine inhaled sharply when he realized what he was about to say. He then felt like an absolute child for not being able to say _his _name. For some reason it was just something he had avoided doing for the last few years. Hearing other people say it was one thing, but having the name escape his own lips caused a wave of overwhelming pain and sadness to wash over him. But his reaction also made him feel like an idiotic and immature child.

"What is it with you and his name?" Jordan arched an eyebrow.

"I don't know, it's stupid," Blaine refused to meet his friend's gaze. "We didn't exactly part on the best of terms."

"Neither did you and I, but that didn't make me not want to say your name out loud," Jordan was silent for a few moments, "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened between the two of you?"

"It's…complicated."

"Fine, I get it, you don't want to talk about it. But I just have to let you know that I'm here whenever you _do _want to talk."

"Thank you, Jordan."And Blaine meant it.

"No, thank _you_. For not calling me Jordy!" He laughed, followed by Blaine.

"You are very welcome…Jordy."

"Oh come on!" He groaned.

Just as Blaine laughed again, he saw a familiar face step into the small café. It was Dylan Freeman, and he wasn't alone. Blaine instantly knew the guy behind him was Adam Crawford. He had seen a few pictures a couple years back, and besides, he knew the guy was blonde. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Blaine did his best not to stare, but he just couldn't help it. He watched as the couple headed over to a table at the opposite end of the room and sat down next to each other. He watched as Adam reached for Dylan's hand under the table and squeezed it affectionately. He also watched as Dylan smiled in a manner that very much resembled shyly. It was only when he saw that Adam was leaning over and whispering something in his boyfriend's ear that Jordan waved in hand in front of Blaine's face.

"Earth to Anderson. What are you staring at?" He arched his neck to look behind him.

"Nothing, just someone I know from school. What were we talking about?"

Jordan chuckled. "How are things with you and Kurt?"

"Kurt? Oh! Yeah, things are great. I should hopefully be seeing him tomorrow. What about you? Anyone special in your life?"

"Nah. You'd be amazed at how many guys feel that someone with no real feet is too much baggage." He said it with a smile, but Blaine could see the hurt that Jordan so desperately tried to hide being reflected in his eyes.

"Well then they're all idiots. You're like the biggest catch in the world."

Jordan grinned. "Oh yeah? Then how would you feel about an affair?"

"I'm intrigued. Tell me more." Blaine said through his laughter.

"I was thinking that maybe Kurt and I could go behind your back and-"

"Shut up!" Blaine rolled his eyes, still amused.

They had finally almost managed to stop laughing, but then Blaine looked back up at Jordan and the whole thing started again. Eventually though, Jordan smiled and said, "You know, I've missed this. I've missed you."

"I've missed you too. As much as I love my life right now, there are things, and _people_, in my past that I don't think I could ever live without." Blaine said sincerely.

"How do you know what you can't live without?" He asked.

Blaine frowned. Jordan had a good point; how would one differentiate between something or someone that should rather be left behind as opposed to that which should be carried with you? "Um, I guess it's just a feeling. Something inside of me telling me to never let go."

"Okay, I get that. But can I ask you something else?"

"Sure." He nodded.

"What would happen if you were to lose one of the people your gut told you can't live without? What then?" Jordan arched an eyebrow.

Blaine stared blankly, utterly confused. He knew that Jordan was a very intelligent person and often gave a lot of thought to things most people would deem simple or obvious, but he just couldn't understand why his old friend was taking his words so seriously. It almost seemed like there was some kind of specific answer he was looking for, but if that were the case, then what could it possibly be? And why?

Instead of changing the subject, Blaine decided to tackle the question. "I guess the loss would weigh you down. You'd feel like some part of you has been taken and that there is no way of getting it back. It would feel like an unbearable whole had been drilled into your life, and into your heart, and there won't be any way of closing it again. Also, I suppose it would be particularly hard to let go, and everything around you, and inside you, would constantly remind you of this. At least, that's what I assume would happen." Blaine shrugged nonchalantly.

"Hmmm, pretty insightful for someone who's just making an assumption." Jordan observed with a smile. Blaine knew very well that he was being sarcastic, but he never got to pursue the matter, since at that second another familiar face entered the room.

"Jeff!" Blaine waved him over with a grin. When the blonde male saw him, he returned the grin and walked over toward the usher-er.

"Hey, Blaine," Jeff gave him a one-armed hug and widened his smile when he saw who was sitting across from him. "Jordan, hey. Long time no see, man."

Jordan grinned in turn and got out of his seat to give Jeff a proper hug. Blaine suddenly felt guilty for not doing the same thing, but nodded earnestly when Jordan suggested that the new-comer join them.

"You look great. How've you been?" Jordan asked him.

"Honestly? Better than ever. I have so much freedom now, it's insane. What about you? How's _medical _school?" Jeff had chosen to sit down next to Jordan. This did not come as a surprise to Blaine.

"It's…surreal. I mean, the work is hard and all, but it has also been the most amazing experience of my life. One day I'll get to save someone's life, I just can never get enough of saying that. Oh, by the way, what exactly are you studying? I don't think that Blaine ever told me. The last thing I heard from him about you was that you two were in the same college."

Now, of course, Blaine felt like an idiot. It was true, he had ever told Jordan about the career path that Jeff was pursuing, but it wasn't because it hadn't been important to him, it was mostly just because him and Jordan didn't get all that much time to talk, and when they did, the two always had so much to tell each other.

"I'm in the PhD program for Clinical Psychology. It sounds more impressive than it is…ah, who am I kidding? No, it doesn't! When I'm done, people are gonna have to call me _Doctor _Sterling." Jeff chuckled.

"And they're going to have to call me Doctor Soldier…okay, that doesn't work so well. It sounds like I have two different occupations." Jordan grimaced.

"Over-achiever much?" Blaine laughed.

"And here I was thinking I had such an awesome last name," Jordan sighed, "Oh well, sacrifices have to be made."

"I have a solution," Jeff offered, "You just have to make sure that you get married before you graduate. That way you can take your husband's last name without going through all the hassle of changing it otherwise."

"But what if his last name sucks? Like what if it's something like Smith? Or Radley? Or Duke?" Jordan wondered.

"I think Jordan Duke has a nice catch to it," Blaine grinned again, "What do you think, Jeff?"

"I agree. Doctor Duke." Jeff laughed.

"Yeah, thanks for nothing." Jordan put on a fake straight face.

"Would you prefer marrying one of us?" Blaine arched an eyebrow.

"If I don't have to change my name to _Duke_, then yeah, definitely." He nodded.

"Oooh, if you had to pick between the two of us, who would you choose? I'm guessing it would probably be Blaine since you've known him longer, so the chances of acting like an old married couple would be ten times higher." Jeff said with an amused expression.

"Oh no way am I going to answer that question." Jordan shook his head.

"Is it because you want us both too much? Or because you don't want either of us at all? In which case, it's your loss." Jeff's smile widened.

"C'mon, Jordy, answer the question…you know you want to." Blaine teased.

"You two are not seriously asking me to choose which of you I want to marry most?" He asked with rapid blinking eyes.

"That's exactly what we're doing." Jeff said.

"I think I pick the cute guy behind the counter. He seems sweet and not at all strange like the two of you." Jordan replied, gesturing behind Blaine.

"You can't do that, you have to pick one of us." Blaine insisted, Jeff's smile infecting him.

"Why? Why on earth do I have to do that?"

"Because we said so." Jeff explained as if it were obvious.

"Fine, Jeff, do you have a boyfriend?" Jordan asked him.

"No. Why?" He frowned.

"Then I choose you, since Blaine is already taken. Are you two happy now?"

"That is an invalid reason." Jeff pointed out.

Jordan groaned. "Oh come on! Is there seriously nothing better to talk about than this?"

The response was simultaneous. "No."

"I don't believe that for even a second. Let's talk about politics." Jordan suggested with a wide smile.

"Or how about let's not?" Jeff looked almost scared, but his attention was stolen when he spotted someone at the counter. "Hey Blaine, isn't that Dylan Freeman?"

Blaine didn't even have to look. "Yeah, that's him."

"Huh. I don't think I've ever seen him outside of school before. Is he here alone?"

"Um, not exactly. He's here with his, uh, boyfriend."

"He's gay?" Jeff's jaw almost unhinged. "Damn, if only someone had told me that sooner."

"Why? He doesn't seem all that great." Blaine observed.

"Have you seen him? Not to mention he's involved in like 10 charities and I've heard he volunteers at soup kitchens. And the fact that he's in The New School means he has to have some ounce of intelligence…what more could you possibly want?" Jeff asked him like he was mentally handicapped.

"You don't even know him; he could be a total asshole. And the fact that he has practically no friends at our school doesn't do much to disprove my theory."

"Okay, there's a reason you don't like him. What is it? Tell me." Jeff insisted.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Blaine coughed.

Jeff eyed him suspiciously whilst Jordan watched the whole exchanged silently.

"Fine," Blaine sighed, giving in, "His boyfriend is Adam Crawford. Kurt's ex."

"Ohhh, that explains it." Jeff nodded. "I suppose you don't like this Adam guy?"

"Never actually met him in person, but from what I hear, he's a jerk. Besides, it isn't unusual for me to not like my boyfriend's exes; that's a reason in itself." Blaine said defensively.

"Sure it is. But I do know more than a few girls who would be absolutely heartbroken to find out that the man of their dreams is more interested in their less female counterparts. I for one am not." Jeff grinned again.

"You seriously need a boyfriend, man." Blaine shook his head. Jeff looked offended. Jordan laughed.

"I have an idea," Blaine continued with a secret smile, "How about you date Jordan?" Blaine burst out laughing for reasons unknown to the other two, who sat there awkwardly looking at pretty much everything except each other.

"Ha ha, that's hilarious." Jeff eventually said with an uneasy smile.

Blaine noticed the awkward the tension and just like that the smile was wiped off of his face. It took an additional two seconds for him to realize why everything had suddenly gone so awkward, and he felt like an idiot for not noticing it sooner. He fumbled for a change of subject. "Would you two like to get out of here? It's getting cramped and the waitress doesn't seem to notice that we even exist."

"Sure," Jeff shrugged, "I have no plans."

"Same here." Jordan nodded.

"Great." Blaine smiled and gestured for them to lead the way. As he followed the pair out, another private smile formed on his lips. If anyone had seen it, they would instantly know he was up to something…which he was.

Unknown to the three friends, Adam was watching Blaine's every move as he exited the small coffee shop. The second he had layed eyes on him, he had known exactly who it was: Blaine Anderson. There weren't a lot of people that Adam Crawford didn't like, but that man was definitely one of them.


	3. Chapter 3

"Wow, he's hot!" Riley exclaimed with an amused expression on her face. Sebastian responded with a sly grin, all the while suppressing the urge to giggle. As his cousin continued to scroll through the images on his phone, he stared out the window at the falling rain and tried to imagine what his friends were doing right now. He thought of one person in particular and wondered if he missed Sebastian as much as Sebastian missed him. Despite it being only a week since he had arrived in New York, it somehow felt a lot longer. A sad smile crept onto his features when he realized that this was the first time ever he had experienced something close to being homesick.

"You okay?" Arielle nudged Sebastian with her shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking." He assured her. The three of them were in his aunt's car, with the owner behind the wheel, Sebastian in the passenger seat and Riley in the back. They were on their way to Sarah's house, since she had invited all of them over for dinner. And although it was unspoken, they all knew that the only reason Alex had refused to come with was because Sebastian was there. Over the course of the last 7 days, his cousin had done pretty much everything in his power to avoid and/or ignore Sebastian. The latter had decided not to pay attention to this behaviour, both because giving Alex some kind of reaction would only fuel his efforts and because deep down he knew that he deserved it after what he'd done to his family.

"Are you going to tell me what his name is?" Riley leaned forward so that her head was by Sebastian's shoulder.

"Hmmmm, I don't know…"

"Oh please, what do you think I'm going to do? Stalk him on Facebook?" She asked in a voice that was a tad bit too innocent.

"Trust me, I know you're not going to do that. Especially since he doesn't have a Facebook account."

"Oh come on! Please just tell me? Please?" Riley gave him a sweet smile. He turned around to look at her, and couldn't help but laugh when he saw her face. He knew the look in her eyes all too well; it was the same one he gave to people when he wanted something.

"Fine," He grinned, "His name is Kylien." He loved saying that man's name out loud; it almost always brought a smile to his face.

"Great name," Riley nodded before her eyes narrowed, "How old is he?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" His response was somewhat more defensive-sounding than he had intended.

"Just want to make sure he's not a cradle-snatcher, that's all." She shrugged.

"Seriously? Just look at him. Does he look like he's 20 years older than me?"

"This could just be an old photo."

"I took it myself not 3 months ago," Sebastian blinked at her, "And not that it matters _at all_, but he's 21. Born less than a year before me."

"I see," Riley's face was serious for a moment before she broke into another smile, "And what exactly is the nature of your relationship?"

"Oh my word!" Sebastian said exasperatedly, "That happens to be none of your business, _Mother_."

Before Riley could say anything else, Arielle turned into the long driveway of the large house owned by Sarah Crawford. Sebastian jumped out of the car before his cousin could get another word in, but she was too quick and had caught up to him before he could reach the door. "This conversation is not over, you know." She told him, feigning seriousness.

He groaned, "What's next? You gonna have the talk' with me too?"

Riley laughed. "Um, somehow I doubt that I'm the right person to talk to about…that."

Sebastian rolled his eyes, also smiling, and threw his arm around his cousin's shoulders.

"You two are really strange," Arielle commented as she knocked on the door in front of them, "It definitely doesn't come from my side of the family."

"Sure, Mom. Just keep telling yourself that." Riley gave another innocent smile.

At that second, the door opened to reveal a beaming Adam. "Hello. Come on in."

Arielle did as instructed and walked through the doorway, only pausing to smile at her best friend's son before heading deeper into the house to find the resident. Sebastian and Riley on the other hand were having a silent argument about who should step inside first; Sebastian was trying to be chivalrous, and insisting his cousin go. Whereas Riley claimed to hate chivalry and wanted Sebastian to go first. Adam stood a couple of feet away, watching the whole thing in amusement. "You know, if you two are planning to stay outside for the whole night, the least I could do is to bring you some chairs."

"Tell her to stop being such a feminist and act like a normal person for once." Sebastian told Adam whilst casting a look down at Riley.

"And tell _him _that if he really respected women, he would stop being such a hardass and just get the hell inside." She returned.

"I never realized how mature you both are." Adam continued to smile, but earned glares from the other two.

"You pick." Riley suggested to the blonde man in front of her.

"Me?" He was uncertain, but decided that if it would make them stop acting like children and just get inside the house, then he would do practically anything. "Fine, I pick Sebastian." He announced as he grabbed the aforementioned brunette by the forearm and pulled him through the doorway.

There was a second where Sebastian cringed at the sudden contact, but he quickly got over it and grinned at Adam. "I knew it; you like me more."

"Actually, I'm just more afraid of women." He replied softly as they headed toward the lounge, where everyone else was already seated.

It took everything inside of Sebastian to not burst out laughing when his aunt asked, "What on earth took you so long?"

"They were, um, debating." Adam responded, also hiding a smile. "I want you guys to meet someone. Sebastian, Riley, this is Dylan; Dylan, this Mrs. Burke's nephew and daughter."

"I'm the nephew." Sebastian pointed out as he noticed the other man in the room for the first time. He was slightly taller than Sebastian, with sandy-blonde hair and soft brown eyes.

Dylan laughed. "Thank you for clearing that up. I figured as much, but one can never be sure."

Something about the way that Dylan had just laughed caused Sebastian to frown slightly. He couldn't stop staring at those brown eyes…if only he could figure out why. Luckily for him though, no one else noticed his sudden confusion. Because he didn't want to feel like an absolute idiot being the only one standing in a room full of otherwise seated people, he grabbed the first open space to sit down. Which also happened to be right next to Dylan.

Sarah looked at her watch, "Oh boy, I better go check on that chicken."

"Is there anything I can do?" Riley asked her.

"Would it be so terrible to ask for your help?"

"Not at all," She smiled, "This is what I do for a living. And I can show you some tricks of the trade."

"I love your daughter." Sarah said to Arielle.

Arielle laughed and followed the other two women out of the room, leaving the three young men by themselves. "So…" Sebastian fumbled for something to say, "How do you two know each other?"

They both laughed. "He's my boyfriend." Adam was the one who responded.

Sebastian had not seen that one coming…or maybe he had. "Oh."

"You're not a homophobe, are you?" Dylan arched an eyebrow.

"Um, no." Sebastian shook his head, obviously amused. "So what do you do for a living?"

"I'm still in college, but this is my final year. You ever heard of The New School?"

"Yeah, I've heard of it. Which division are you in for?"

"Music. Classical. My parents' idea. What about you? What do you do?" He asked.

"Uhh, I don't really have a profession…yet. It's a long story." Sebastian replied sheepishly. He felt like an idiot for admitting that out loud, but it made him feel better knowing that the last few years of his life had taught him way more than any college could ever have done in double that amount of time.

"You shouldn't worry about it, you're still young. I mean, what are you? 19? 20?"

"20." He nodded.

"I only started my music education at that age. Your future has this funny way of finding you when you least expect it." Dylan assured him with a warm smile. Sebastian frowned again. He couldn't kick the feeling that they had somehow met before, but that couldn't be possible. Where would they have met? And why wouldn't he remember it?

"So what does it feel like to be back?" Adam asked Sebastian.

"It's kind of…unsettling and strange, but also good. On the one hand I feel like I never left, but on the other, it feels like I was never here at all. If that makes any sense." He explained.

"It does," He nodded slowly. "I get that feeling every time I go back to England."

Sarah came back into the room. "Sorry to bother you, but Dylan could you come help me with something? You said you know a bit about electronic appliances, and I can't get the oven to work. If you would please take a look at it?" She smiled hopefully.

"Of course." Dylan patted Adam's leg before following Sarah back to the kitchen.

"So," Adam moved closer to Sebastian, "Are you going to tell me now? Where you went?"

"Oh, that," He grinned, "I suppose I could tell you…"

"But?" Adam arched an eyebrow.

"_But _I think it would be a heck of a lot more fun to make you guess. I'll give you a hint: my grandfather was born there." Sebastian told him.

"Come on, you've got to give me a bit more than that. What was his name?" He wondered.

"Louis."

Adam's eyes acquired an extra little glint. "Were you perhaps in France?"

Sebastian's smirk and the slight nod of his head gave it away: Adam was correct. The blonde Englishman grinned triumphantly. "Let me guess; he's your grandfather on your dad's side? Which means that you had easy access to the country."

Sebastian nodded again. "I've been there before, when I was around 14, but this time I didn't go to Paris again. Well, I did. But only for a couple of days."

"Where were you the rest of the time then?"

"Here and there. I went all over, really." He shrugged.

"Were you on your own the whole time?" Adam thought he already knew the answer.

"Actually, I wasn't. In fact, I had company for pretty much 2 years; it was only the first 6 months that I was all by my lonesome." Sebastian was still smiling. That seemed to happen whenever he thought about his French friends.

"That must have been some adventure, huh?"

"Totally," Sebastian snorted, "I had some of the best _and _worstexperiences of my life there, but I wouldn't trade any of it for the world. And the best part is that I accomplished more than what I set out to do…way more."

"I see," Adam gave a single nod and looked down at the floor, obviously pondering something. When he looked back up, he wore a mischievous smile. "So who is he?"

"Huh?" Sebastian frowned.

"The guy you met there."

"Not you too," He groaned, "We are just friends!"

"Aha! So you do admit that there is a guy?" Adam straightened his back, bumping his knee against Sebastian's leg in the process.

"Do I admit that I met human _males _over there? Yes, I do. But the claims that any of said men were anything more than just friends is completely and utterly incorrect. In fact, it is just plain weird." Sebastian absent-mindedly brought his hand up to his chest when he felt his heart speed up. He really hated when that happened.

"If you say so," He paused for a moment. "Do you plan on going back?"

"Why? You think you gonna miss me too much if I do?"

"Um, not exactly. I was just asking because you never actually said why it is that you came back, so I was wondering if it was something that you need to do, or if you already have whatever it is that you're looking for. If it's the former, then that probably means you're not staying, but in the case of the latter, it might mean you are..."

Sebastian refused to meet the older man's gaze. The guilt in his mind was forming a lump at the back of his throat and he had no idea how to get rid of it. Adam had asked an extremely difficult question; not because it was complex, but because it wasn't actually something he had thought about before. Well, actually he had. But he doubted anyone would be as happy with his decision as he was. "It's more complicated than that." He finally said, still studying the floor.

"It's not really any of my business anyway." Adam shrugged.

Before anyone could say anything else, Dylan reappeared. "We got the thing fixed, and Sarah asked me to tell you guys that the food is ready and that you two can go straight through to the dining room."

"Okay, thanks Dyl." Adam smiled.

Dylan gave him a wink in response and disappeared around the corner again.

"Please don't tell Arielle about this." Sebastian begged in a low voice.

"The fact that you're asking me to keep quiet probably means that you are planning on going back," He observed with a suspicious look, which was quickly replaced with a sigh. "Like I said, it isn't any of my business, and I want to help you out, but if you're going to repeats past mistakes and leave without warning again, then you're on your own."

"What? No! I would never do that again, I swear. It was stupid. And I don't know for sure that I will be going back, which is why I don't want to unnecessarily upset my aunt. At the first sign of a decision, any decision at all, I'll talk to her, but until then please just…don't tell her about this." This time he didn't avoid Adam's gaze; he needed the other man to see that he wasn't lying or making this up, he was serious. Dead serious.

Adam studied his face for a couple of seconds before finally caving. "Fine, I won't say anything. But please just don't hurt her. Not again."

Sebastian could never tell Adam how much it meant to him that he seemed to care about Arielle so much; it set his mind at ease knowing that there would always be people looking out for her.

"Are you two coming?" Riley stepped into the room with a grin.

"Definitely. I'm starving." Adam returned her smile before exiting the room without another glance at Sebastian.

Riley shifted her attention to her cousin. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."

…

Sebastian poked at his food lazily as he listened to the dinner conversation going on around him. He had no idea why, but for some reason he just seemed to have lost his appetite these last few days. Which was slightly ironic, since back in France there were times where he would literally go days without eating a single thing. And it wasn't by choice either; it was because they just hadn't had enough money to feed everyone, so naturally sacrifices had to be made. It usually pissed Kylien off that Sebastian didn't want to eat, but he'd rather face the wrath of his friend than try to sleep at night when Océane or Jade or Lina or any of the others might be suffering.

As Sebastian stifled yet another yawn, he realized that everyone was staring at him. "What?" He blinked.

Arielle chuckled. "I was just telling Sarah about that show-choir group you were in when you were a teenager, but for the life of me I can't remember what the heck it was called."

"The Dalton Academy Warblers."

"Oh yes, that's it! How I could possibly forget a name like that escapes me." She shook her head.

"Oh yeah, I think I've heard of them," Dylan frowned, "Or maybe not. If it's the same group that I'm thinking of, then I go to school with two more of its former members."

"You do?" It was Sebastian's turn to frown. "Do you know their names?"

Adam knew exactly what was coming, so to minimize the impact on himself, he started fiddling with his watch as if he couldn't hear a single thing that was going on around him. _If only that were true, _he thought.

Dylan payed no attention to his boyfriend who was seated next to him, and scrunched up his face trying to remember the names that one of his friends had told him about. After an entire minute of absolute silence, he finally remembered. "The first one's name is Jeff, I believe. Jeff Sterling. The second one has a rarer name; something like Slade, or Kade, or was it Kane? No, that's not it." Dylan frowned again.

"Is it by any chance Blaine? Blaine Anderson?" Sebastian's face was devoid of emotion.

"Yes! That's exactly it. So I'm guessing that you did go to school with them?" Dylan asked. Everyone else had once again gone completely quiet. Even if they didn't all have the juicy details, every single person in the room, besides Dylan, knew about Sebastian's history with Blaine. Sebastian had gone out of his way to make sure that the details had remained hidden, even back when he was still living with Arielle he had made sure to keep his feelings locked away, far away from the public eye. Although, the effort may have been a total waste after he passed out in front of Adam and his mother after the story on the news about Blaine's supposed tragic 'death'.

"Uh, well, I went to school with Jeff, not with Blaine. But I definitely knew him." Sebastian responded quietly.

"Huh, small world."

"Yeah, that it is." He couldn't believe it. Blaine had actually done exactly what he had always wanted to do: gone to a music school in New York. Sebastian wanted to be happy for him; he desperately wanted to be, but his other emotions made it practically impossible. He kept thinking (well, _worrying _would be a more accurate term) about what would happen if he ran into Blaine on the street, or in a restaurant, or even in a freaking jail cell! There was so much history between them, not to mention that the last time they spoke, Sebastian basically told him that they would never see each other again. What the hell would he say if they really did see each other again? Should he give him a hug and ask him what he's been up to for the last few years? Or should he rather give him the finger and walk away? Okay well, the latter seems a little immature and extreme, but still. He didn't have the slightest clue as to what he would do if he really was presented with such an awkward situation.

"Sebastian, you still with us?" Arielle brought him out of his thoughts again.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry. I got distracted." Sebastian mumbled. He really didn't want to think about Blaine again; he had spent endless nights and days doing that before he had successfully managed to move on. He wasn't in the mood to repeat history.

The next hour passed in a blur. People ate, talked, and laughed. Sebastian could hardly pay attention; his mind was making it impossible to focus on external matters. He was once again plagued with the life-sized question mark that represented his future. Should he go to college? Should he start a business? Should he go back to France? Should he do what Dylan had said and just wait until his future found him? Or maybe that only worked with some people.

"Dude, not that this is any of my business, but are you okay? You've been kinda out of it for most of the night." Dylan said with a frown.

Sebastian realized that they were the only two people left in the dining room. He heard laughter coming from the kitchen and figured that that must be where all the people had gone to. "I'm fine, really. I just have a lot on my mind right now."

"If you say so," He shrugged, "Can I tell you something weird?"

Sebastian arched an eyebrow.

"Don't give me that look, I'm not about to hit on you. I was just gonna say that I have this really strange feeling that somehow we've met before." Dylan said with a small smile on his lips.

Sebastian opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. He frowned at the man in front of him. It couldn't be a coincidence that they both felt like they'd met before, could it? But if not, then where the hell would they have met?

A thought suddenly went through Sebastian's mind. Dylan was gay, so it was highly possible that he went to gay bars, and it didn't seem totally impossible that he could have visited Ohio at some stage…so what if Dylan had been one of Sebastian's hookups? There was only one way to find out. "Have you ever been to Ohio?"

"Yeah, several times. Why do you ask?"

_Oh crap. _"Because that's where I used to live. If we've met before, it would probably have been there." He explained, hoping Dylan would take the hint. Nada.

"Maybe," He didn't seem convinced, "But I'm really bad at names and faces; if I only met you once like 3 years ago, then I definitely would not remember you."

Before Sebastian could reply, he heard his name being called from the kitchen. He didn't waste a second in getting up and all but running out of the room. Didn't help much though, Dylan was practically right behind him. "Yeah?" Sebastian faced Riley, who had been the one to call him.

"Oh, I didn't want you to do anything, I just wanted to give you a hug." She grinned and stepped forward, wrapping her arms around his waist.

Sebastian couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from curving upwards. "You're just cold, aren't you?"

"See Mom, I told he wasn't just pretty; he's smart too." Riley giggled, still holding onto him.

"Did she have alcohol?" He asked Arielle, who sighed and nodded at the exact same time.

"She only had wine." Dylan blinked.

"Apparently that was enough." Sebastian remarked, not knowing what to do with the slightly-inebriated woman still clinging onto him. He stared down at her, and as if she could feel his eyes on the top of her head, she looked up and smiled at him. He smiled back and tightened his embrace.

"You know, she's quite the adorable drunk." Adam chuckled.

"I'm not drunk!" Riley insisted, then paused. "Just not entirely sober."

"I think we should get her back home." Sebastian suggested to his aunt.

"I agree." Riley giggled again. "You know, I am really happy you decided to change your last name," She pulled a face, "Smythe sounds so mean."

"I'll take her to the car, don't worry. Could you just find my bag? It's around here somewhere." Arielle asked.

Sebastian nodded after letting go of his cousin, and started looking around for the purse. He was just about to leave the kitchen to go check in the dining room, but stopped when he saw Dylan's face. "What?"

"Your name is _Sebastian Smythe_?"

"No. Well, it used to be before I changed my last name to St. Romain about 2 years ago. Why?" Sebastian froze. What was Dylan getting at?

Sarah and Adam watched the exchange in front of them, both of them equally confused.

"I think I just figured out how I know you," Dylan told him, his eyes wide, "I think you'll remember too if I told you that my full name is Dylan Freeman."

Sebastian's lips parted slightly as the last piece of the puzzle finally clicked inside his brain. Now he remembered. "Well I'll be damned," He studied Dylan's eyes as another smile crept onto his face. "It really is you."

**...**

**A/N: Hiya everyone! Hope you're all still alive and well :) **

**So I know I'm taking forever to get to the reunion between Seb and Blaine, and I apologize, but I'm just trying to bring everyone up to speed first. I promise it will happen in chapter 4 or 5 :)**

**And on the last night note, thank you again to all you lovely people who followed/favorited or reviewed! I still get a thrill out of it after all this time :) xx**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I feel really sad as I write this. I literally cried when I heard about Cory, and I cried again when I saw the beautiful things people are saying about him. It probably doesn't mean much, but I'm dedicating this chapter to him (Finn isn't in it, but I thought about Cory a lot as I wrote it). So, goodbye to the amazing man known as Cory Monteith : ( 3**

…

"'Sup." Dylan grinned as he took the seat opposite Sebastian.

"Hey." Sebastian returned his smile.

"Adam is busy with some work stuff, so he's only going to join us later. Oh, and I asked a friend from LA to meet me here, but it'll only take a few minutes since apparently he's only here to surprise his brother or something like that. But, you know, other than that I'm all yours." He explained.

"That's cool." Sebastian said.

"So, dude, how have you been? You know, what have you been doing? I feel so stupid for not recognizing you sooner; I mean, it hasn't been _that _long."

"It's been long enough, I guess. We both looked a bit different back then," He shrugged, "Besides, I did recognize you. Your eyes, anyway. I just couldn't place them."

Dylan nodded. "Yeah, what caught me first was the way you smiled; I knew that I'd seen it somewhere before. But when I realized where, I almost couldn't believe my eyes."

"Me neither," Sebastian chuckled, "But I'll never forget the look on your face when you asked me if my last name was Smythe. Your eyes looked like freaking golf balls."

"Dude, if you saw yourself through my eyes then and saw yourself now, you'd have looked the same. Do you know how tall you were when I last saw you? You barely came up to my chest, and now we're pretty much the exact same height…it's weird!" Dylan laughed.

"Yeah well, that's what happens when you hit puberty, I guess." Sebastian shrugged with an equally amused smile.

"No kidding," He snorted, "But isn't just your height. It's your voice, your hair, the way you talk, your demeanor, your personality, the way you dress, the way you act around people, it's all so different. Not to mention that last time I saw you, you weighed like 90 pounds."

"Okay, okay, I get your point," Sebastian grinned, "I've changed a lot. I'd like to believe that I'm slightly more mature than I was when I was 13, but that's just my opinion. Although, thinking about it now, you seem quite different yourself."

"I do?" Dylan blinked. "Different how?"

"Well," Sebastian leaned forward on his elbows, "for starters, you seem a heck of a lot more confident. You're smiling more often than you used to-"

"I could say the same for you."

"And you also seem more sure of yourself. Plus, I had no idea that you could sing," He frowned as he added, "or that you were gay."

"Well it would have been really weird to tell the little kid I was supposed to babysit that I liked guys instead of girls. Also, I once overheard your father saying something less than pleasant about Elton John's sexuality, so I figured that keeping my mouth shut would be the only way to keep my job," Dylan was quiet for a moment, deep in thought, "It doesn't creep you out, does it? That your babysitter for almost 4 years is homosexual?"

Sebastian stared at the man across from him, a grin slowly making itself known. "You really haven't figured it out yet, have you?"

"Figured what out?"

"Dylan, if it bothered me then I would be one confused dude. Don't you get it? I'm gay too." He explained.

"You're _what_?" Dylan all but choked on thin air.

"I always thought my dad told you and that's why you left," Sebastian shrugged, "I figured I disgusted you or something."

"No, he never told me anything; no one did. I left because your father told me out of the blue one day that my services would no longer be needed, since he thought you were getting too old for a babysitter. I of course didn't agree with him, since you were barely 13 and sometimes I got the impression that you-never mind. But anyway, there wasn't much I could do, and since I had just graduated and wanted to take a gap year, I said goodbye to you and haven't seen you since." Dylan looked down at the table, purposely avoiding eye contact.

"Oh. Elliot told me that you left because I was a freak; but come to think of it, I don't know why I actually believed him. He was always saying crap like that to mess with me." Sebastian frowned.

"No offence, but I really hate that brother of yours. I honestly couldn't stand the guy. He creeped the crap out of me; and I know it wasn't just me, since every time he got within 10 feet of your dog, the poor thing would practically run away with fear in his eyes. I don't even want to think about what he did to that poor innocent animal." He shook his head.

"Trust me, I hate my brother too. In fact, I don't even consider myself related to any of those people anymore. In my mind, my only family is Arielle and her children."

"Is Arielle your mother's sister?" He wondered.

Sebastian nodded.

"They look kinda the same. I always liked Mrs. Smythe." Dylan said mostly to himself.

Sebastian chose to ignore the last comment and decided to change the subject. "How is your family doing? I hear your dad's pretty famous now."

"Yeah, he is. And you have no idea how damn annoying it is. I rarely ever see him, and when I do, we're never alone. There's always some annoying paparazzi or fan-girl trying to get his attention. It's easier with my mom, but she's also pretty busy. It's why I spend so much time around Adam and his family. It's kinda pathetic, but I really don't like being on my own sometimes." He confessed sheepishly.

"It's not pathetic at all. In fact, I can sort of relate. I didn't use to mind it when I was a kid, but I don't know, for the last couple of years I've noticed just how much I seem to have changed."

"No kidding," Dylan snorted, "For the last 3 months or so when I used to babysit you, all you ever did when you came home from school was lie in bed and stare at the ceiling. I have no idea how on earth you managed to do that for literally hours on end, but I guess that's why they say we're all unique." He noticed that Sebastian seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation, so he quickly said, "Adam tells me you were in France. That must have been fun."

Sebastian smiled at the gesture. "I don't know if 'fun' is necessarily the word I would use, but it was definitely one heck of an experience. It taught me a lot."

Dylan nodded. "I also went to France; you know, in my gap year. It was so amazing and beautiful, I'll never forget it. Probably because I embarrassed myself time and time again, since I couldn't speak a word of French. Why I went to country where I wouldn't be able to understand the residents, I have no idea," He chuckled, "How about you? Can you speak the language?"

"_Vous pariez que je fais."_ Sebastian smirked.

Dylan cleared his throat, then made a scene of widening his eyes and shooting glances to the left and right. "Dude, there are children in here," He hissed before turning to the lady who was sitting with her two kids at the table next to them, "Pardon his French." The woman gave him a dirty look before diverting her attention back to the children.

Sebastian had thrown his face into the table in front of him to hide his identity as he burst out laughing. It took him an entre minute before he could catch his breath. "I think she's contemplating whether to put 100 or 1000 miles on your restraining order."

Dylan chuckled. "Seriously dude, what the hell did you just say?" His eyes widened again. "It's these jeans, isn't it? They do make my butt look big! I am going to kill Adam!"

Sebastian snorted. "Yes Dylan, that's exactly what I said. That your jeans make your ass look big."

"I knew it. Well I guess it's broccoli for dinner tonight." He sighed dramatically.

"You are such a weirdo," Sebastian grinned, "Seriously, I do not know you right now."

"Eh, that's your loss. I am amazing," Dylan returned the smile, "So, if you don't mind me asking, do _you _have a boyfriend? Or are you not that kinda guy?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't know. I've been on one date in my entire life, and I spent the whole night thinking about someone else. That was 3 years ago. I used to be so good at getting guys to like me, but I guess I must have lost that ability somewhere along the way. See, I have what could be defined as a curse."

"You do, do you? And what exactly is this 'curse'?" Dylan asked curiously.

"Well I've been told that I can be very intriguing when meeting someone for the first time, but that right there is the deceit, since as soon as someone actually gets to know me, they bail. My personality has a nasty habit of scaring people away. I like to believe that it's because they're intimidated by my overwhelming awesomeness, but eh, that's just me." Sebastian had no idea why he was still smiling.

"You don't scare me," He shrugged, "I like you. But come to think of it, I could just be biased."

"Biased?" Sebastian arched an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I know what an adorable kid you were…well, until you hit your teen years. But I blame puberty for that."

Sebastian shook his head with a smile. "Please never call me adorable again. It's weird and emasculating."

"Can I ask you something?" Dylan nervously scratched his elbow.

"Okay."

"It's personal and I don't think you're going to like it." He warned.

"Then why do you want to ask it?"

"Because it's something I've always wanted to know, and I used to regret not building up the courage to actually ask you." Dylan explained, his face more serious than it had been since he sat down. Sebastian noticed this, causing his anxiety levels to rise slightly.

"Do I have to answer?"

Dylan shook his head. "Only if you want to."

"Okay." He repeated.

"This was shortly after you turned 13. One afternoon I stopped by your house to collect a book I had forgotten there, and your mother let me in. I went to the living room, which as I'm sure you can remember, was connected to your father's study. This meant that one could hear anything potentially going on in there…and I did."

Before he could continue, Sebastian, who had paled severely, interrupted him, "What did you hear?"

"I heard yelling, some of it came from you, but it was mostly just him, your father. It went on for a couple of minutes, and I was just about to leave since I felt like I was eavesdropping on something that wasn't any of my business, but I was stopped in my tracks when I heard a strange noise that sounded like a strike, followed by a cry of pain. Yours. Then I heard another strike and another cry. I was freaked out, man. I didn't know what to do. On the one hand, I wanted to barge in there and stop whatever was going on, but on the other, I was terrified of your father. Before I could even make a decision though, your mom found me and ushered me out of the house," Dylan paused, "So I guess my question is, did your father hit you?"

Sebastian was silent. He just kept staring, all the while trying to figure which one of the many times it was that Dylan had overheard. When he eventually realized that there was no way he could possibly separate the occasions where his father had used him as his personal punching bag, he gave up. "If I tried to lie and say that no, he never hit me, then I would have to try and come up with some kind of believable excuse as to what you could have heard that day. But since I can't think of a single thing, I'm not going to lie. So, yeah, he did. It's one of the reasons that I don't want anything to do with him anymore."

Now it was Dylan's turn to be silent. He had absolutely no clue what to say to that. What the hell could he say? He knew that Sebastian wasn't the kind of person who would welcome pity, so going down that road would be a big mistake. Dylan also knew better than to say anything bad about Mr. Smythe, since Sebastian had probably already called the man every single swear word in the English language (and possibly in French too). In the end he decided to go with, "I'm glad you got away."

"So am I. I have an old friend to thank for that one. Anyway, I wanted to ask you, what made you want to go to The New School?" Although it was true that Sebastian had been wanting to ask that, he was mostly just interested in changing the subject.

I personally didn't really give a damn, but for some reason my parents seemed bent on that school, so naturally that's where I went. They used to brag to other people and call me a piano prodigy; I really hated it when they did that. It was so freaking embarrassing. Especially since I was no prodigy. I had some raw talent, but mostly it was just a lot and lot of practice. Oh well, it payed off in the end." Dylan shrugged.

"How good of a singer are you? On a scale of one to ten; one being the lowest and ten the highest."

"Ummm, I never really claimed to be that good," He chuckled self-consciously, "I would say around 6 or 7 maybe. What about you? Arielle likes to talk about you almost as much as she talks about her own children, and although she's not usually talking to me, I have mastered the art of subtle eavesdropping and have therefore picked up a few things. Like the fact that you used to dabble in the singing thing yourself. So, how would you rate yourself?" Dylan was smiling again, happy to have gotten the pressing question out of the way, so that they could go back to talking about less depressing/violent things. Now Dylan loved violence as much as the next guy, but only when it was on TV or in video games. The real kind usually just unnerved him.

"Dude, I was like a 12!" Sebastian laughed. "Just kidding. My singing was okay, but I think I was a better performer than anything else. I could sing, dance and act all at the same time, all the while charming the audiences with my killer smile." He grinned broadly and winked at Dylan.

"I have no idea how much of that is made up, exaggerated, or actually true. Although in the case of the last one, I'd say that you have a modesty issue. But even I will admit that you do have a great smile; it's infectious."

Sebastian's face went serious for about a split-second before the grin had returned to his face. "Awww, I bet you say that to all the guys who aren't your boyfriend."

"Nah, only the really cute ones." Dylan returned.

Sebastian's eyes widened slightly and his lips parted. He elicited a sound that was somewhere between a chuckle and a snort. He had absolutely no clue how to respond to that.

Dylan had a sucky poker face, and burst out laughing. He put his hand in front of his mouth to try and stop himself, but no such luck. It took him a while before he could successfully form words. "I'm just messing with you, you idiot! Dude, you should have seen your face!" His words set him off again, only this time Sebastian laughed with him.

"Not to interrupt you two or anything, but what on earth is so funny?" Adam asked them with an amused smile.

Sebastian's own smile vanished instantly. "Adam. Hi."

"Hi yourself," He arched an eyebrow at the seemingly guilty look on the younger man's face.

"Hey, babe." Dylan pulled up a chair for his boyfriend. Adam smiled at him.

"So I'm guessing neither of you is going to tell me what you were laughing at, huh?" He looked between the two of them.

"Umm, your boyfriend seems to think he's a comedian." Was all Sebastian said, still feeling guilty for reasons that completely escaped him.

Dylan noticed this and found it amusing. He turned to Adam, "I called him cute and now he's all embarrassed. Isn't that just adorable?"

Sebastian narrowed his eyes at his old babysitter and kicked his shin under the table. Dylan winced before chuckling silently. Adam, who still looked confused, was once again looking between the two of them.

"Relax, dude. I have no interest in jumping your bones, I promise. And not just because my incredibly amazing and handsome boyfriend is sitting right next to me, but also because I pride myself on not being a cradle-snatcher." Dylan threw an arm around Adam's shoulder. The latter gave him a sketchy look.

"Cradle-snatcher? Excuse me, I'm 21 in 3 months." Sebastian looked thoroughly offended.

"Shhhhhh," Dylan hissed, putting his hand on the right side of his mouth as if this would prevent Adam from hearing him, "We'll talk about this later. Wouldn't want him getting suspicious, now would we?"

Sebastian mentally forbade himself from finding this amusing.

"You do realize that if I weren't allowing you to live with me, you'd be out on the street right now?" Adam tried to look serious, but failed quite miserably.

"Have I ever told you just how incredibly sexy you are?" Dylan smiled affectionately and leaned in to kiss his boyfriend on the cheek. Adam laughed.

Sebastian felt a pang when he was suddenly reminded of Kylien and how much he missed his comforting presence. He sighed. He had no idea how much longer he'd be able to go on without his friend next to him, but he had a strong feeling that it wasn't long.

"Cool, my friend just arrived. I have to go find him; excuse me." Dylan rose from his seat and frowned at his phone until he reached the exit.

"Are you okay? You seem kind of forlorn." Adam smiled.

"Just thinking."

"It's _him_, isn't it?" Somehow the blonde Englishman saw right through him.

"Maybe." Sebastian shrugged.

"Have you talked to him since you got here?"

"There isn't really any way that I can. He doesn't have a cellphone or a computer. I wrote him a letter a few days ago, but there's a reason that kind of communication is outdated. It's driving me mad." He resorted to chewing his fingernails again.

"Wow, that must suck. Can't he come here?"

"It's not that simple. You see, he's got…responsibilities. Even if he did have some kind of authorization that allowed him to enter the country, there's no way he could just up and leave. I knew I should never have listened to him." Sebastian said sadly.

"I hate to point out the obvious, but if you're so unhappy here, then why don't you just go back?" Adam asked.

"I'm not unhappy, and I don't think I could leave Arielle a second time. I'm only saying that I wish I never left because that way I would already be used to everything the way it was, and I wouldn't have to miss him so much. But I can't go back, not anytime soon anyway, and he can't come here. Being an adult really sucks sometimes." He sighed again.

"Yeah, it does," Adam agreed with a chuckle, "But it also has a lot of redeeming qualities."

"Like what?"

"Like being able to live with someone that you love. I sure as hell couldn't do that with any of my high school relationships." He grinned.

Sebastian snorted. "Yeah, living with someone who cares about you has its perks. And it also happens to be one of the things I left behind."

"You were _living _with him?" Adam was shocked. "Does Arielle know?"

"Umm, well, I might have neglected to mention that little piece of information. But it's not what you people think; me and him were seriously nothing more than just friends. But rent was a lot cheaper if you split it with 4 people."

"You lived with 4 people?"

"No, I lived with 6 people. But only 4 of them could afford to pay rent." Sebastian wore an amused smile.

Before Adam had a chance to reply, Dylan reappeared with his friend. Sebastian's breath hitched when he saw who it was.

"Sebastian?" Cooper Anderson's mouth fell open.

"You two know each other?" Dylan frowned, looking toward Adam, who just shrugged.

Sebastian jumped up from his seat for no apparent reason and continued to stare at the blue-eyed actor. "Cooper. How do you know Dylan?"

"We met through his dad. How do you know him?"

"We met through his, uh, uhm…"

Adam saved him. "They met through me."

"Oh, well, it's nice to see you again. Been a while." Cooper noted that something seemed different about his brother's old friend, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.

"Yeah, it has," Sebastian nodded, "I have to go to the, uh, bathroom." He didn't wait for a response before rushing toward what he hoped was the male's side. It was empty (how convenient) and he leaned against the door, trying to slow his thoughts down. Why, he thought, did it have to be Cooper of all people? He wondered if he would tell Blaine about this, or if he would think it best to rather not say anything at all? Sebastian hoped for the latter.

He moved away from the door and headed toward the taps. After splashing cold water on his face, he took a few minutes to study his appearance in the mirror. He usually hated looking at his reflection; not because he didn't like his appearance, but because he hated what was underneath. And Sebastian knew that it wasn't just him who felt this way. Thinking back to what he had told Dylan earlier, he realized other people reacted in pretty much the same way that he did. They liked his face and his body, but as soon as they catch a glimpse of what's underneath, they can't get away fast enough. He knew it wasn't a personal thing; people were programmed to look out for themselves, often before anyone else. So naturally they try to avoid danger, all kinds of danger…and boy, was he dangerous. This was why he didn't make a habit of letting people get close to him; in fact, there was currently only one person on earth who had seen the real him, and who had not been frightened by what he saw. Kylien knew Sebastian better than he even thought possible, and the former accepted him despite his numerous faults. Then again, Kylien had many demons of his own that he also preferred to keep locked away.

It had taken some practice, but eventually Sebastian had learned how to be believably fake. Not in the sense that he lied about his feelings toward other people, or in the sense that he said things he believed other people wanted to hear. He also didn't smile unless he wanted to, nor did he pretend to be someone he's not. No, his 'faking' was a lot more complicated than that. He would simply just keep a part of him, often the darkest and sometimes the truest part, locked away very deep inside of himself. This was why he missed Kylien so excruciatingly much, because he felt lonely without him. He often felt out of place and somewhat misunderstood. These feelings didn't exist when he was around his 'adopted' family back in France. But he also felt guilty about feeling this way, since he knew how much Arielle loved him. Sebastian loved her too, there was no denying that, but he was too scared to show his aunt who he really was.

"Sebastian, you okay?" He spun around and saw Adam standing there with a guarded expression on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He lied. Okay, well, maybe he said some things he thought other people wanted to hear.

"Really? Because you don't look it. Who is that guy? Why did you go so pale when you saw him?"

Sebastian bit his lip. It wasn't that he didn't trust Adam; he seemed like a really decent guy. The only problem was that Adam also seemed really smart, which could potentially be a problem. Sometimes Sebastian thoroughly hated smart people…it was that much harder to fool them. "He's just an old friend of a friend."

"Hmmm," Adam wasn't convinced, "Well if you should have anything that you want to say to this 'friend of a friend', then I suggest you do it immediately. Once he's gone it'll be too late."

"What would give you the impression that I have anything to say to him?" Sebastian asked casually.

"Let's just say that I'm astute." Adam smiled at some kind of secret amusement. When the tall brunette didn't reply, the former added, "You know, he asked about you as soon as you left."

"What did he want to know?"

"He wanted to know what you were doing in New York, and then he wanted to know if this is where you've been for the past couple of years."

"And what exactly did you tell him?" Once again, Sebastian pretended to be indifferent. And once again, Adam saw right through him.

"I told him that you were here to fix something, and that you were living in France until about 2 weeks ago."

Sebastian blinked at him. "You did what?"

"Relax, I only told him you were here in New York visiting some family and that I had no idea where you'd been before you arrived here. But if you don't mind me asking, why would it bother you so much if I had told him something else?"

"I'm just a very private person." Sebastian mumbled softly.

"Okay." Adam replied equally as low before heaving a small sigh and turning to leave. He knew very well that the younger man was keeping something from him, but he also respected everyone's right to keep secrets, and wasn't going to press the matter any further.

"He's Blaine's brother." Sebastian admitted in a barely audible voice.

Adam froze. He turned back around. "I see."

"I just don't want Blaine to find out that I'm here. I can't let him see me. Ever."

"Why?"

"It's really complicated. I've had to say goodbye to him twice, and I definitely don't plan on making it a third. Me and him, we…aren't healthy for each other. Trust me, its best he never finds out that I'm here." Sebastian explained.

"New York may be big, Sebastian, but it isn't that big. One way or the other, you will see him again."

"I guess. But I think I'd rather stick to my own ignorant hope; I prefer that to facing reality." He shrugged.

Adam was silent for a few seconds as he stared down at the tiled floor. "I saw him. About a week ago."

"Blaine? How is he? Does he look happy?" Sebastian's head shot up.

Adam smiled in spite of himself. "He looks fine. I can't really comment on the happy thing, since I don't know the guy, but he seemed perfectly normal to me," He paused again, unsure of whether or not he should submit the next piece of information, "Did you know that him and Kurt are back together?"

Sebastian's jaw clenched. He tried not to care, he tried _hard_, but it was impossible. He didn't give a damn that Blaine had moved on with his life, that's exactly what Sebastian had hoped for. No, the thing that bugged him was that Kurt and Blaine were like a broken record: repeating the same thing over and over again. Why couldn't Blaine have moved on with someone else? _Anyone _else. All he could manage to say was, "Oh. Good for them."

Adam snorted. "Honestly, I think they deserve each other." More silence ensued. "Like I said earlier, if you have anything you want to tell Cooper, then I suggest you do it now."

Sebastian actually considered it this time. He didn't really want to go back out there and speak to Blaine's brother, but he much less wanted said brother to find out that they were currently living in the same state. Even though New York was huge, it just wasn't big enough. "Fine." He relented with a sigh.

Adam and Sebastian walked back to the table that was still being occupied by Dylan and Cooper, both of whom looked up when the former two approached. "There you are. Is there like some kind of poker ring in that bathroom?" Dylan made a lame attempt at a joke.

"Uhh, Cooper can I talk to you for a second?" Sebastian asked.

Cooper seemed somewhat confused, but nodded nonetheless and led them toward a less crowded corner of the room. "So, how have you been?" He asked the taller male with a forced smile.

"We don't have to do that; I know you don't like me much. Which makes what I'm about to ask you that much harder. I need you-I'm asking you to not mention this to Blaine. Please. He can't know I'm here." Sebastian tried to tone down the pleading factor in his voice. He didn't want Cooper to know how desperately he needed this.

"Why? Why don't you want him to know?"

"Because it's important that he stays away from me. Far away. The past is exactly where it needs to be, and needs to stay. There is no need for anyone to go down old roads and repeat past mistakes. Blaine's life is fine just the way it is now, and you know it. So, for your brother's sake, I am begging you to please pretend that this never happened." This time he didn't bother to disguise how desperate he was.

Cooper frowned at him, trying to figure out what Sebastian's true intentions were. He must have been content that they both only had Blaine's best interests at heart, because he gave a slow nod. "Fine. I won't say anything. But I feel like I should inform you that the longer you stay here, the greater the chance that you two will run into each other at some point."

"Let me worry about that. Thank you, Cooper, despite that I know you're only doing this for him." Sebastian said sincerely.

"Yeah," Cooper moved to go back to the table, but stopped and turned back around slowly, "I meant what I said earlier, about it being good to see you again." With that, he rejoined Adam and Dylan.

Sebastian stood there for a second, taking a deep breath and thanking his lucky stars, before turning in the opposite direction and slowly making his way back to Arielle's house.

**...**

A/N: Just quickly wanna say how thankful I am to you guys for you awesome responses, you really are the best : )

Oh, and I promise the big Seb and Blaine reunion will be in the next chapter, I promise to try and make it as epic as possible!

P.S. I can't actually speak French, and I have no idea how reliable my translator is. But in case anyone was wondering, Seb said "You bet I do".


	5. Chapter 5

Sebastian had to stop himself from emitting a cry of triumph when he realized that the long awaited letter had finally arrived. His second letter from Kylien. Now, he would have screamed victoriously; he certainly was excited enough. There was just one problem: it was 11:30 at night and Sebastian knew from experience that the couple who lived next door were well into their sixties and would definitely not enjoy such a rude wake-up call. But he almost didn't care…almost.

Sebastian had been staying at Arielle's house for the past month (not that he had many other options, considering how miserably broke he was), but this was the first night that he had the place to himself. Most 20-year old men would probably have been overjoyed at this particular prospect, but Sebastian St. Romain was not your ordinary young man. For more months than he cared to count he had managed to avoid spending entire nights by himself, but alas, tonight he was just going to have to man up and be less dependent on other people to keep him company. Although, right now, holding his friend's letter in his hand as he retreated back to the room that he had kind of adopted as his own, his mind could hardly focus on anything else. He spared only a second to throw himself back down on the large double-bed in the centre of the room before tearing at the white envelope currently positioned between his forefinger and thumb. The letter was pretty long, and naturally, it was all in French. It read:

_Dear Sebastian, _

_I can't tell you much joy it brings me to hear that things are going well, and that the adjustment isn't weighing on as much as it used to (although, Lina believes that you're only saying that to make me feel better. I sincerely hope that this is not the case, but even I have to admit that it does sound an awful lot like something you would do). Anyway, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. _

_I have so much that I want to tell you, but also so many things that I need to ask you. My wrist is already cramping and that's only from thinking about the length of this letter. And I feel the need to scold you for your impersonal (lack of handwriting) printed letter. Here I am writing as slowly and neatly as I've been taught, which I suppose isn't saying much since I never finished high school, but still, it's the thought that counts. The effort behind the thought counts as well. And my sister leaning over my shoulder, inspecting my every written word, makes it that much harder to not say something like, 'I miss you like crazy, Bas. I miss your arms around me, and I miss your lips on mine'. Lina has seen. She is currently glaring at me. She says hi. _

_Okay, in all seriousness, have you found another job yet? Have you had any more dreams? And the medication, let's not forget your 'self-medicating' problem. I'm really worried about you, my friend. More than ever. I know that you haven't been entirely honest with your family, and therefore there's absolutely no one to catch the signs. Any of them. As I'm sure you remember, we've talked about this. Many many times. You can only go on pretending these problems don't exist for so long before they start taking over your life again. And we both know they will. I know that I'm being a downer by bringing this up now, but I am literally losing sleep at night thinking about this. About you. It scares the crap out of me knowing that if anything were to happen to you, I'd be the last to find out. Damn, sometimes I wish I had just been a little bit less selfless and never convinced you to go back to New York. And no, that is not my subtle way of telling you to come back, but yes, it is me complimenting myself. I need you to promise me something. If any of your old feelings start to return, any at all, that you would tell me instantly. Even if it's 3 in the morning, you have to tell me. Please don't resort to any of your usual coping methods, all you have to do is write out how you feel and mail it to me. But considering the length of time it will take me to respond, I also have to ask you to talk to someone else as well. Someone you can have an actual conversation with, someone who lives in the same continent as you. I know that you have this thing about not talking to your aunt, but you have plenty of other people to talk to. Don't give me that look. Someone like you will always have more friends than you realize; it's just one of the perks of being so, well, Sebastian. _

_I'll stop with the mothering now. Well, actually, I can't…but you know what I mean. Oh yes! I just remembered that Nolan wanted me to tell you that he was going to hijack your room. Oh wait, that makes absolutely no sense. You and I have the same room. Hmmm. Anyway, I'm a little worried about Jade. She went on a date last night. JADE. A DATE. WITH A BOY. She says it went well and she would like to go out again. With a boy. Seriously, why do I keep stating that this kid's a boy? I feel like I'm trying to insinuate that she's a lesbian in denial. Which she's not…at least I hope not. Okay, I think I'm going to move on now. Remember when I said that I had so much to tell you? Apparently I miscalculated the riveting things happening in my life right now. Which is none, in case you were wondering. When did the life of a 21-year old bachelor become so damn boring? Oh right, when his best friend left for the US. And yes I do realize that it is technically my fault, but it's late and the pain in my wrist is causing the rest of my arm to go numb. I really miss you, Bas. Nothing feels the same without you here and no one can make me smile like you do. Speaking of which, your smile is one of the things I miss most about you. Besides that of Océane's, your laugh is the only other thing that can cheer me up on my, uh, bad days. See, now I'm getting all sappy. Stupid earth and sun rotation thing. Stupid moon. Stupid dog. Sorry, the neighbor's dog started barking again._

_To address the whole 'Blaine' thing, I honestly don't think that hiding from him is the best thing to do. Do you really believe that you can carry on avoiding him forever? Not only are you friends with a man who's in the same college as him, but you're also friends with a man who's ex happens to be dating the very person you're trying to avoid. In fact, I'm surprised that you've been there an entire month and he still has no clue. That seems to be a thing with him, huh? Being clueless. This is getting ridiculous; my grumpiness is making me spiteful and mean. Then again, if there's anyone who deserves some harsh words, it is that guy, I suppose. There I go again. What is happening to me?! Kidding, I'm fine. Actually, I'm sort of giggling right now, so 'fine' is maybe not the best word to use, but oh well. It's the coffee. It has taken over my hand and is forcing me to write things. I need help._

_A certain pretty little female is calling me, so I should probably stop now before I say something that will definitely make you never speak to me again. Goodnight, Sebastian. Sleep tight, and I pray that you'll have some good dreams for a change...Dream about me (Lina was leaning over my shoulder again. What can I say, I'm a victim to my impulses. That sounds wrong). _

_All my love,_

_Kylien._

Sebastian read it. Then read it again. And again. And again. Seeing his friend's handwriting, being able to hear his voice in his head and imagining it saying the words that he saw in front of him. It all made Sebastian feel like Kylien was actually there with him; that they were spending yet another night together in the comfort of each other's presence. But it wasn't just the raven-haired Frenchman that he missed; no, he missed his other 5 friends as well. Especially Océane. Damn, he missed that girl.

When he realized he was wallowing in self-pity again, he gave a loud groan before moving into a sitting position and rubbing his forehead with his right hand. Sebastian knew exactly what he had an urge to do, but considering that it was one of the things mentioned in the letter, and one of the things that had made Kylien most anxious about him (or was it _for _him?) he decided to suppress his desires and find less dangerous ways to entertain himself.

He threw himself backwards into his previous lying position and grabbed his phone, having decided to play absolutely mindless mobile games until he grew tired enough for him to actually fall asleep. Sebastian hadn't been playing for 10 minutes when he felt a message come through on his phone.

_Okay, it's done. The body has been stashed and the witness had been taken care of…but now that I think about it, that would mean I have a second body to dispose of. I'm turning the car around immediately. Just joking! I didn't kill anybody. I just cut off his fingers, then his toes, then his ears, then his…uh, well you know ;) Hahaha, this is Dylan BTW. You need to call me. Like RIGHT NOW. _

Sebastian had to fight the urge to laugh as he stared at the text from his psychologically-challenged friend. The guy was a complete weirdo.

_First of all, what kind of a moron 'stashes the body and takes care of the witness' and then leaves the dead witness exactly where he killed them? That's just stupid. And secondly, it's freaking 12 O' Clock at night! I am not calling you right now! Ask your boyfriend to relieve your 'frustrations', I'm sure he can do wonders over the phone with that accent._

Just as expected, Dylan responded almost instantly.

_Dude! Keep your insinuations to yourself, will you? My lovely, charming and totally hot boyfriend is sitting right next to me giving me a very suspicious look because I refuse to show him your message. And how dare you think such disgusting things about my Adam!...although you weren't wrong about the accent think (wink wink, nudge nudge). But seriously man, you really need to call me, there's something I need to talk to you about._

Sebastian heaved a really long sigh. He had no idea what could possibly be so important, but whatever it was, it couldn't be worth having to call someone at midnight.

_I'm lazy, I'm tired and I'm lazy. If you want to talk to me so badly, why don't you just call me? And please, keep the personal details to yourself. I really don't need to hear any more details about you 'nudging' Adam. _

He wondered how on earth he was supposed to sleep tonight. It was late, it was dark, he was lying on a bed, but he didn't feel anywhere close to being able to actually fall asleep. He realized with another sigh that it was going to be another one of 'those' nights. The kind where he would spend all night lying awake driving himself crazier and crazier until he finally has to break one of his rules. Back in France, Kylien would be able to tell almost instantly if he broke one of these rules. This was a good thing; it forced him to be sensible and not do it again. But here? There wasn't even anyone around, but even if they were, they'd have no idea. Kylien was exceptionally observant, not everyone could see what he did.

_I'm starting to get worried about the amount of time you spend thinking about my boyfriend. Seriously, it is weird. And you have a good point. Why don't I just call you? In fact, why am I even sending you this?_

Sebastian barely had time to finish reading the whole message before his phone started to vibrate, with Dylan's name popping up on the screen. He slid the green icon to the right and answered. "Hey, stalker."

"Oh please, don't flatter yourself. I have better things to do with my time…and my life."

"Then why don't you do them?" Sebastian grinned. He hadn't realized that talking to someone was a pretty good substitute for having them next to him. Not that he wanted Dylan next to him, that would kind of have been inappropriate. He just really didn't like to be alone.

"Sebastian, seriously, you have _got to_ stop hitting on me like that. Adam can get really jealous sometimes and he also has some serious anger-management issues, proven in fact, by the scary look he is giving to me right now. Isn't he just the sweetest?"

"I don't actually believe in psychology, I think it's just some kind of urban myth created to give people false hope that they aren't in fact crazy as bat shit. Is that a saying? Anyway, my point is that I think you and Adam need to go for couples' counseling. Not that it exists. So you're basically screwed."

"Not tonight I'm not," Dylan mumbled, "Look, I'm going to hand over the phone now."

"Okay." Sebastian shrugged.

"Hi Sebastian, its Adam. I think Dylan has a secret stash of alcohol somewhere in my house, because he seems to have completely forgotten the actual reason he wanted to talk to you. If I remember correctly, you said that you still hadn't gotten a job?"

"Don't remind me." He heaved a sigh.

"Well as it turns out, we might be able to help you with that. See, I know this guy who owns a-actually, I'm not entirely sure what you call it. Basically, its kinda like a bar and a restaurant all rolled into one, and it caters to under-aged people as well. Anyway, the place is called _Hal's Heaven, _and Hal, the owner, is looking for live entertainment in the form of music. This is where you come in."

"You want me to _sing_?" Sebastian frowned at the ceiling.

"Basically, yes. The place isn't sketchy or anything, I swear. It attracts a decent amount of people, and if Hal likes you, then he'll pay you a monthly salary if you perform there 3 nights a week. It won't be much, I guess, but it would be something. And it wouldn't be a contracted thing, you can quit whenever you want. For example if you get a better job. I kind of already told him that I might have someone who's interested in the gig, and I'm really sorry if I overstepped. He and I were just talking the other day, and he mentioned it, and I instantly thought of you. Once again, I really didn't-"

"Adam! You are going to have to breathe at some point," Sebastian snorted, "You didn't overstep or do anything wrong. Thank you. Really. This is great. I can't think of a better job. I owe you big time."

"Considering that I didn't actually do anything, you can't owe me. But I'm really happy that you're happy," Adam frowned, "about this, I mean."

He laughed silently. "Once again, thank you so much. I mean it. And I will find a way to make it up to you."

"You don't have to, Sebastian."

"I want to. I gotta go, but," Sebastian paused, "thank you for being so nice to me. Like always. I'm going to say goodnight now, before I paint my fingernails and apply my facial mask."

Adam smiled to himself. "Goodnight, Sebastian."

"Goodnight. I already said that, didn't I? I'm gonna hang up now. So, uh, bye." Sebastian tapped the red icon vigorously before slapping himself on the forehead. Idiot.

…

Sebastian yawned as he stepped into _Hal's Heaven_. He was more tired than he cared to admit, considering that he hadn't gotten a decent night's sleep in an entire week. But despite the fact that his eyes were burning from the effort of keeping them open and that his muscles were fatigued due to the lack of rest, there was no way he was going to let anything get in the way of him delivering the best performance he possibly could. He used to be Sebastian Smythe for goodness sake, the best damn captain the Warblers had ever seen. Technically the first captain that they had ever seen, but also the best. In his opinion anyway. There was no way he was going to let himself get all nervous about performing in front of a few- what Sebastian saw made him stop in his tracks. Apparently he had slightly miscalculated the number of people that would be drawn into a place like this. Not that there was anything wrong with the place, in fact it was a lot more upper-class than he had anticipated. He just hadn't been expecting this many people. _You have faced way worse than this, so man the hell up and get rid of those stupid knots in your stomach, _he told himself.

"Hey Sebastian!" Dylan waved to him, "Come over here and meet Hal."

He did as he was instructed and got introduced to a short-ish stocky man who greeted him with a firm grip and a large grin. "It's nice to finally meet you, son. I only hope you can live up to everything that Crawford's been saying about you." The man winked at him before walking over to another corner of the room where a group of young people had called his name.

"Uh, what exactly has 'Crawford' been saying about me?" Sebastian arched an eyebrow.

"I have no idea. All Adam told me was that Hal wasn't overly excited to have an unemployed high school graduate as his entertainment of choice, so he had to feed him a bunch of crap to get the guy to cave and give you a shot." Dylan shrugged.

"What kind of crap exactly did he feed him?" Sebastian blinked, his anxiety levels rising by the second. "I said I was an _okay _singer, remember? If he's expecting some kind of Josh Groban, then he's going to be very _very _disappointed."

"Relax, dude. My boyfriend is many things, but an idiot is not one of them. He wouldn't have said anything about you that wasn't true. And trust me, he's not looking for a Josh Groban type singer, he's looking for someone who can perform and keep the audience entranced and entertained at the same time. And Adam and Hal seem to believe that that person is you, so just calm down and stop psyching yourself up." Dylan smiled reassuringly before walking away to take a phone call.

Sebastian heaved a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. He had no idea what was wrong with him. He led a show-choir group to several sectionals titles, single-handedly blinded a member of the opposition and even unintentionally helped a young man in his decision to attempt suicide, but all of a sudden he was afraid of what some rude, narcissistic and conceited New Yorkers might think about him? What the hell? When did he turn into such a freakin' sissy?

"Hey, you ready? You need to be up on stage in 5 minutes." Adam said with his usual smile.

"I am," Sebastian nodded, "and thanks again. Dylan told me that it wasn't exactly easy to convince Hal to give me a chance. I really don't know why you would go to all that trouble for me, but I really appreciate it."

"Give yourself more credit, you deserve it. And I didn't tell him anything that wasn't true, so you really have nothing to thank me for. It was a complete coincidence that I happened to be talking to him, and he happened to bring up the gig thing at the same time as I happened to be thinking of you. No one to thank but fate." His smile broadened.

Sebastian chuckled and looked down at his feet. "You were thinking about me, huh?"

"I-I didn't mean," Adam avoided the brunette's gaze as his cheeks flushed slightly, "that's not even remotely what I meant."

Sebastian laughed. "I know. I was just messing with you, Blondie."

He shook his head, even more embarrassed. "So I'm guessing you've come up with the perfect song choice?"

"Well it would be pretty stupid if I showed up unprepared, wouldn't it? So that's why I prepared Just One Yesterday by _Fall Out Boy._"

Adam stared at him trying to figure out whether he was being serious or not. Sebastian managed to keep a straight face for about 30 seconds before he started laughing again. "Okay, sorry, I couldn't resist. But you better not tell me that you don't like _Fall Out Boy_, because then I will be forced to reconsider this friendship."

"My facial expression wasn't implying that I don't like the band, only that I don't think you could pull off the song." He shrugged.

"No, seriously, tell me how you really feel," Sebastian mumbled, "just for that comment I am not going to tell you what I'm really going to sing."

"Fine, then don't tell me," He said before grabbing Sebastian by the shoulders and gently pushing him toward the stage, "but it's time for you to go on."

After quickly grabbing his guitar, he took a deep breath and ascended the three small steps leading up to the platform in the centre of the room. Guitar in his hands, strap over his shoulder and his posture corrected, he walked over to the microphone and tapped it very gently to make sure that it was on. It was. Almost every eye in the room turned to him. It took all his willpower to not gulp at that very moment. "Hi everyone, my name is Sebastian and I'm here to sing you a song tonight. It's been a while since I've done this, so let's all hope I don't suck too much. Anyway, here goes nothing." After one more deep breath, he removed the guitar pick from his pocket and started strumming. A few seconds after that, he started to sing.

_Angel of Mercy_

_How did you find me?_

_Where did you read my story?_

…

"Do we really have to do this? You people do realize that I have multiple essays due on Monday and I haven't started a single one yet?" Kurt complained.

"That is you're your fault, Hummel, not mine. And when was the last time that any of you actually had some fun? Seriously, you live in New York a couple of years and suddenly you all turn into old married couples, well, without the couples part if you're referring to me and Berry. But my point is, where's your sense of adventure?" Santana said with pointed looks to all her friends.

"Why exactly are you so interested in going to this place anyway? And what the hell is so adventurous about it?" Blaine frowned.

"A waitress by the name of Jessie, that's what. She might as well stamp a large 'L' across her forehead, it's so obvious. Not that I mind." Santana smiled her trademark smile, indicating that all other arguments were pretty much futile as she led her 3 friends into _Hal's Heaven_.

Blaine's first impression of the place was that it was loud. There were a lot of people, and they were pretty much all over the place. It looked as if the inside of the building had been split into two; on the one side, the restaurant, there were tables and chairs decorating the room. Some of them were occupied, but most were empty. Probably, Blaine figured, because they were all on the other side of the space; the 'bar' side. Not that it looked much like one. It was more of a large empty floor with speakers in every corner and a stage in the centre. The actual bar was in the very back, but oddly enough, only one of the bar stools were occupied, since as he had assumed earlier, most of the people were more interested in the live entertainment, which Blaine wasn't paying much attention to at the moment. Because of his height and placement, he couldn't see anything that was going on up on the stage.

"I hate this place." Kurt pulled a face when he was accidentally shoved by a man in his early thirties.

"You've been here 2 seconds." Santana shot back.

"I strongly believe in first impressions." He argued.

"Can we at least not stand here the whole night? We are literally right in front of the door." Rachel pointed out.

"Let's move over there," Blaine pointed to the restaurant side, "it's quieter."

"Fine by me."

As soon as they were seated, Santana groaned. "Now I want alcohol."

"Me too," Kurt agreed, "anything to make this go by faster."

"I'll go." Blaine offered. They thanked him and told him what they wanted before he was once again caught up in the midst of a crowd. Only this time, he could hear the singer up on the stage, and it made him freeze instantly. That voice. He knew that voice. He forgot all about having to go to the bar, and instead started making his way closer to source of the music. He needed to see the musician. The lyrics ringed in his ears.

_All I wanted to say_

_All I wanted to do_

_Is fall apart now_

_All I wanted to feel_

_I wanted to love_

_It's all my fault now_

_A tragedy I fear_

_Angel of Mercy_

It took him a couple of minutes, but Blaine finally managed it. He got through to the right edge of the platform, close enough to be able to see everything happening on the stage, but far enough out of sight so that the musician wouldn't be able to see him.

_Before just the daylight_

_Come and I stand by_

_Waiting to catch the quickest plane_

_Fly me to nowhere_

_It's better than somewhere_

Blaine's jaw dropped and all breathing efforts ceased. He couldn't believe his eyes. He hadn't just been imagining it, he had in fact heard that voice before. Almost 3 years. It felt like forever ago.

_And I see you _

_Whoa_

_I feel you_

_Whoa_

_I'm so lost in you_

_A tragedy seemed to be over now_

_A tragedy it seemed to be_

_Angel of Mercy_

Blaine had no idea whatsoever how to proceed. A small voice in the back of his head was telling him to ignore the man from his past up on the stage, go to the bar, get the drinks, and go back to his friends as if none of this ever happened. But how could he do that? How could he just turn his back...again? No, there was no way in hell he was going to pass up this opportunity. An opportunity he had been wishing for and may never get again.

_Angel of Mercy_

_How did you move me?_

_Why am I on my feet again?_

_And I see you_

_Whoa_

_I feel you_

_Whoa_

_I feel you_

_Whoa_

_I feel you_

_Oh oh oh_

The crowd went wild as he finished. They loved him. Sebastian grinned proudly as he once again addressed the audience, "Thank you so much. You guys are awesome. With the way you just cheered, there's no way that Hal can't give me this job now. At least I hope. Damn, I probably just blew my shot," he chuckled, "once again, thank you all." With that he abandoned his position in front of the mic, and slowly made his way off the stage. Blaine knew that this was his one chance, he needed to act now.

Summoning up every ounce of courage that he possessed, Blaine spoke up as the tall brunette walked past him. "Sebastian."

The latter reacted in a very similar manner as the former had. He froze. Sebastian didn't even have to look, he would recognize that voice anywhere, anytime. He just couldn't believe he was hearing it hear and now. With a lot of force he finally managed to command himself to turn around. The sight of Blaine had an instant effect on his body. His heart sped up, his mouth dried out and his head started to spin. "Hi, Blaine."

"Hi," The word was barely more than a whisper, "How- how long have you been in New York?"

"A month or so," Sebastian shrugged before answering the question that he knew was coming, "I was avoiding you."

Blaine didn't understand why those 4 simple words made him feel like someone was currently gripping his throat. "That's...understandable, I guess. How have you been?"

Sebastian shrugged again, offering no other response. He looked down at the floor as he spoke, "I hear things are pretty good with you."

"Um, I suppose. You were really great up there." Blaine smiled.

The taller male let out a breath as he stared somewhat blankly. "Thank you," he looked way again, "but I think I'm going to have to turn down the job."

That stung too. Blaine forced his voice to remain steady. "_Now_, you mean. You're going to have to turn down the job now because-because of me. Don't worry about it, okay? I won't come here again, I swear. That doesn't mean much, does it?"

For the third time, Sebastian only shrugged. He looked like he wanted to be pretty much anywhere on earth but there, so Blaine decided to just put him out of his misery. "I have to go. I just remembered I have something to do at the-the car." He didn't wait for a reply, he just bolted for the door. Everything and everyone around him was making him feel extremely claustrophonic and he needed to get away. Only when he had successfully reached his car, did he release the tear that had been threatening to expose him. There was no way that Blaine was going to let Sebastian know what seeing him again had done to him. Was _doing _to him right now. Without a second thought, he climbed inside the car and drove away. He would text Kurt later and make up some kind of an excuse as to why he had to leave so suddenly, but right now, Kurt was the last thing on his mind.

Back in _Hal's Heaven_, Sebastian had pushed himself away from the crowd. He stood in the corner and tried to get his breathing under control. Adam and Cooper had been right; he couldn't avoid his past forever. He just hadn't anticipated that seeing Blaine again would have this kind of effect on him. _Damn him, _he thought, _just when things were finally going well for me_.

He turned around with the intention of finding Dylan and Adam to ask them what they had thought about his performance (at this point he didn't really care, he was just looking for a distraction). As soon as his back was facing the wall again, he caught sight of another familiar face from his teenage years. Rachel Berry. She saw him too. Rachel hesitated. She knew that it would be rude to just turn around and walk away, but she wasn't in the mood for him right now. Sebastian surprised them both by being the first to speak. "Hi, Rachel."

"Hi, Sebastian," she frowned, wondering if he were up to something, "been a while."

He nodded. "Yeah. And don't worry, I'm not plotting or scheming or anything. As strange as it may be, I actually have better things to do with my life now. Well, actually, I don't. But I like to tell myself that I do."

She smiled. "I don't know why, but I actually believe you. No offence, but you were kind of a idiot back when you were in high school."

"Hey," He frowned, "I was way more than just an idiot. Asshole or douchebag would be a better term."

"I just didn't want to be rude, but yeah, you were. Oh well, the past is behind us for a reason. Do you live here now?" Rachel asked.

"Kind of."

"Then I'll see you around." She gave him one last (slightly less forced) smile before almost going back the direction she had come, but remembered on the last second why she was here in the first place. "Oh, by the way, have you seen Blaine?"

Sebastian wasn't sure whether or not he should be honest, but decided to go with the former. "Yeah," He nodded slowly, "he left."

"Oh," Rachel frowned, "thanks." This time she really did leave.

Sebastian ran his fingers through his hair and heaved a sigh. Things had just gotten a hell of a lot more complicated. That always seemed to happen when him and Blaine were brought into the picture.

Sebastian had a strong feeling that this would not be last he saw of Blaine Anderson.

He certainly wasn't wrong.

**...**

**A/N: Was that okay? It was really hard to figure out how I think they would respond after not seeing each other for so long, and I'm really sorry if it was disappointing. I know it was brief, but they were just a bit overwhelmed (and it's really late), but next time they'll have a lot more to say to each other. This is kinda where I need your guys's help. I'm not entirely sure how they should act around each other now. Should Sebastian hold a grudge? Should he just forgive Blaine? Should Blaine grovel? Should Blaine want to grovel? So many questions! **

**If anyone has an opinion, any opinion, please tell me :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Okay, I know that its been forever since I last updated. I have no excuse beside the amount of drama that has become my life**** recently****. I promise to try and update more frequently.**

**Also I apologize for the amount of Sebastian chapters, but I swear its all for a specific reason :)**

Sebastian stretched out and put his arms behind his head as he watched Dylan scrunch his face up. He'd been bored out of his mind at his aunt's house, so the elder male had suggested that Sebastian come hang out with him. Only, Dylan had not been counting on the amount of work that he would be tasked with, so whilst Sebastian lounged on the couch and stared on with amusement, the New School student was stuck working on essays.

"You know, instead of being such a pervert and staring at me the whole time, you could actually help." Dylan commented with a patronizing smile.

"_Or_," Sebastian returned the smile, "I could continue staring at you until you can't focus on anything but me. Maybe even write my name in that little 'History of the Classics' thing you're currently writing. That would be fun."

"Hey, watch it, little lanky; there's only room for one self-obsessed, conceited and narcissistic person in this house, and I'm afraid the spot has already been filled…by my lovely boyfriend." He smirked.

Sebastian laughed. "Firstly, if you ever call me 'little lanky' again, I will belittle your lanky. And secondly I don't think Adam is the self-obsessed one in that relationship."

"Heh," Dylan grinned, "You're probably right. But seriously, all this thinking can't be good for my mental health; think I'm gonna take a break. You hungry? I'm hungry." He abandoned his seat on the floor and headed toward the kitchen.

"Throw in some coffee, a butler, and maybe one or two male models and you've just found your soul-mate." Sebastian chuckled.

"Aha! You are so lusting after me. I knew this day would come sooner or later…although, I kinda expected it to be sooner." Dylan took out a bottle of milk from the fridge and drank straight from the container.

"Dude, your classiness is overwhelming," The former Warbler rolled his eyes, "But uh, can I have some?"

"Sure." Dylan tossed the milk at him.

Sebastian frowned as he poured some of the contents into his mouth. "Can I ask you something?"

"I swear, it's just a bruise." He replied quickly.

"Um, gross. No, I meant can I ask you a question about you and Adam?"

"Oh," Dylan's eyes darted from side to side, "In that case, ask away."

"How did you two meet? I mean, it obviously wasn't at school." Sebastian entered the kitchen and started to sniff at the open bottle of coffee granules.

"Oh that. Well, it was about a year ago, and Adam was working backstage on one of the productions that was being held at The New School. I usually go to pretty much all of them, and this time was no different. But," He sniggered, "They were having some serious technical difficulties, which wasn't Adam's department, but he was the one who had to go onstage and apologize to the audience for the inconvenience. Dude, I swear to you, the second I saw those blue eyes on that face with that accent, I knew I just had to meet that guy. And so I did. I found him afterwards and introduced myself, and you know what was awesome?"

"He told you he wasn't interested and you continued to stalk him until he eventually just gave in and agreed to go on a date with you?"

"Close. He had no idea who I was! I basically fell in love with him right on the spot. I asked him for his number, he gave it to me, I called him the next day, he agreed to meet me for coffee, and the rest is pretty much history." Dylan grinned.

"You two have been going out for almost a year?" His eyes widened slightly.

"Well, uh, not exactly. My comment about 'the rest is history' is pretty vague, I guess. Adam refused to go out with me at first, saying that he'd rather get to know me. But I think he was only hesitant because he still had feelings for his previous boyfriend; I think his name was Stephen or something. The two had broken up about three months or so before I met him." Dylan explained.

"So how long were you two friends before you started dating then?"

"Almost exactly seven months of continuous flirting, on my part, and continuous ignoring my flirting on his part. I could tell that he liked me, the hard part was just getting him to admit it. So one night I got him drunk and shoved my tongue down his throat." The grin returned to his face.

"How…romantic," Sebastian grimaced, "Can I ask you something else?"

"Yeah, sure. But only if I can ask you something first?"

Sebastian shrugged. "I guess."

"Have _you_ ever been in a relationship?" Dylan stopped what he was doing and gave the younger male his full attention.

Sebastian looked down at the counter-top. "Um, no, I haven't."

"Why?" He frowned. "Was it because you didn't want to or-"

"Because no one wanted to go out with me?"

"I wasn't going to say that," Dylan argued, "I was going to ask if it was because you've never met the right person. That happens a lot; especially with guys like us. You don't have to be ashamed of it, man."

"Who said I was ashamed of anything?" Sebastian snapped.

The 25-year old remained quiet as he climbed onto the counter and started fidgeting with his fingers. Only then did he speak, "You said you had something to ask me."

"Just forget it."

"Sebastian," Dylan sighed, "I didn't mean anything by it. I'm sorry, okay?"

"Don't be," He shook his head and climbed up next to Dylan, "You didn't do anything wrong. I'm just overly sensitive sometimes; Kylien was always telling me I should stop taking things so personally."

"Your friend from France? Is he gay too?"

Sebastian nodded. "Yeah, but he doesn't like to tell people. They're not as accepting about that kind of stuff; the French, I mean."

"I heard that somewhere. If you don't mind me asking, how come you two never…you know, got together. You obviously really care about him, and I've seen pictures, he's hot. So, what was stopping you?"

Sebastian considered this for a moment. "We didn't have that kind of relationship. I wouldn't say that I thought of him as a brother, because it wasn't really like that either. He was-is my best friend in like every way possible. But the thought of kissing him and stuff…eh, no."

"Then can I have him? I've always had this thing for French men."

"I thought you had a thing for British men? In fact, one specific British man."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Oh well." Dylan grinned again.

"So, about that question I wanted to ask earlier," Sebastian began, "It's really kind of personal."

"Is it about that one time I got drunk and flashed the-um, it's not about that, is it?"

"Once again, _no_. What I wanted to ask is…um, was it, I mean, is it hard to remain _loyal _to Adam? Wait, that didn't come out right." Sebastian slapped his forehead.

The smile vanished from Dylan's face. "You're asking if it's hard to not cheat on my boyfriend."

"I'm not really very good at having friends, so if that question was off limits, I'm sorry. Should I not have asked that?" Sebastian wondered nervously.

"No, it's not that you shouldn't have asked it, it's just that no one ever has. I wasn't expecting it. Why-why do you want to know?"

"Most gay couples I know are pretty dysfunctional, but you two seem so… I don't know, happy being together. But I know that things are very rarely as they seem, so I wanted to know if you had ever been tempted to cheat on him?"

It was Dylan's turn to think for a moment. "I don't know if I've ever actually been tempted to do something with someone else, but I have thought about other guys before. Not in a gross or perverted sense, but just like, generally. Does that make me a bad boyfriend?"

"I don't think so. I'm not really the right person to ask, but I still don't think so. Anyone can see that you make him really happy."

"I know, I just feel really bad about it sometimes." He heaved a sigh.

"Maybe you should talk to Adam about it if it makes you feel like that. If anyone's going to understand, then it'd probably be him." Sebastian snorted.

"Yeah, he's really sweet, isn't he? Okay, enough with the serious talk, I don't like the real world. Let's talk about something else instead. Hmmmm, I've got an idea." Dylan's eyes brightened.

"Should I be feeling scared right now?"

"Yes," He chuckled, "That's exactly what you should be feeling, because I think we should play a game."

"A game?" Sebastian asked incredulously.

"Yes. There's so much about you that I still want to know; pretty much everything that happened since I last saw you and-"

"You mean last week?"

"No, you idiot. I meant after I stopped babysitting you. Okay, so this is kinda like Truth or Dare, only without the dare part. I'll start: were you sad after I left?" Dylan smiled mischievously, aka, his usual facial expression.

"Yes, Dylan, I spent hours crying into my pillow and then rented every sad chick-flick, and watched them while eating chocolate ice-cream and deciding whether or not I should delete your number from my phone. It took me months to get over you." Sebastian replied dryly.

"You know, Sebby, you really don't have to be such an ass." Dylan laughed.

"You did not just-did you just call me what I think you called me? Because for your sake I hope you called me something that sounded a lot like what I think you called me, because if you really did call me what I suspect you called me, then someone will be losing a limb today."

"You didn't mind it when you were ten." He grinned for about the millionth time.

"Actually, I did, I just tolerated it because I liked you. And because I was actually half a decent human being back then; oh, how things have changed."

Dylan rolled his eyes and nudged Sebastian with his shoulder. "You know what's weird? That the more time I spend with you, the more you remind me of that same little kid. I mean, there are lots of things about you that have changed, besides just your voice and your physical appearance, but there are almost as many things that have stayed the same."

"Like what?"

"Your innocence. You were so damn sweet when you were little; the way you talked about the things. The stuff you said. You always made your mother and me smile. Oh, yeah, did you know that I still have that picture you drew me for my sixteenth birthday? I never had the heart to throw it away."

"You think I'm innocent?" Sebastian didn't know whether he should be flattered or offended.

"Yes I do. I can't even begin to explain why, but trust me, I'm not the only one who sees it. But this is all beside the point, you never answered my question. Did you or did you not miss me after I got fired?"

"Well, I don't know if I _missed _you, but it definitely bugged me when I thought you left because I was a freak or something. Okay yeah, maybe I did miss having you around. I didn't really have any friends my own age." He shrugged.

"You were too mature for kids your own age. Even now you're hanging out with a guy who's five years older than you. Dude, you really gotta learn how to make friends." Dylan chuckled.

"The only reason I believe you about your age is because I've seen your drivers' license. Because not only do you not look your age, but you also don't act it. This is why you and I get along so well." Sebastian grinned.

"Aww, you think I look young? Thank you, Sebby, that means a lot coming from you."

"You do realize that I have a whole collection of sharp knives sitting right here next to me? Call me that one more time, and you'd be forcing me to use one of them."

"Fine, fine, I'll just stick to calling you Little Lanky then." He laughed.

"I see. Well, I didn't want to bring this up, but it seems you're forcing my hand…Arnold."

"No! No! No! Aaarghh! I hate my middle name." Dylan buried his head in his hands.

"I warned you." Sebastian shrugged.

Dylan remained quiet for a few moments. "Can I tell you something that I really shouldn't be telling you?"

"Sounds intriguing." He smiled.

"I think one of the reasons I didn't recognize you straight away was because I didn't want to…"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I didn't want you to be that little kid I had babysat ten years ago, because, well, because it would have been a little creepy." Dylan admitted.

"Creepy?" Sebastian frowned.

"Yeah. I thought that you were, you know, kinda cute." He said the last part so softy that his younger friend could barely hear him.

Sebastian burst out laughing. "Who's lusting after who now?"

"Shut up." Dylan punched his arm.

"Well if it makes you feel any better, I found you moderately attractive as well. Just moderately."

"Oh really? I didn't know you were into older guys." Dylan joked.

"And I didn't know you were a cradle-snatcher." He returned.

"I resent that accusation! I barely ever find younger guys attractive; most of the time I just wanna pull up their pants and tell them to get off their freaking phones. But you're not like most guys your age."

"I'm not really like anyone. Sometimes I wonder if that's such a good thing." Sebastian said mostly to himself.

"Trust me, dude, it's a great thing." Dylan insisted.

"If only you knew, Dylan, if only you knew," He shook his head, "There's so much about me that people can't see, that they don't know, but if they did…well, let's just say there' s a reason I keep it a secret."

"I think maybe I know more than you give me credit for," Dylan looked him right in the eye, "But I know better than to bring it up."

This made Sebastian go completely quiet. He wondered if Dylan could possibly be talking about the same things that he was referring to. And if so, how much did he actually know? These thoughts and fears caused a sudden wave of sadness of to wash over him.

Dylan noticed. "See," He heaved a sigh, "That look on your face is exactly why I never talk about it."

Sebastian still didn't say anything and stared down at his legs. Dylan touched the side of his jaw, "Come on, look at me. I didn't mean to upset you."

He nodded slowly and looked up, right into the golden eyes staring back at him. Sebastian had no idea why, but he suddenly had the urge to gulp. Up close, he could see the subtle lines that turned into dimples whenever Dylan smiled. He could also see the faint white that tinged the top of Dylan's eyelashes. Sebastian's heart sped up like crazy.

Dylan's mind was screaming curses at him as he leaned forward and did what he did next: he gently planted a kiss on Sebastian's lips. Sebastian closed his eyes and inhaled as Dylan leaned forward a second time and kissed him again, planting a hand behind his neck and pulling his face closer to his own.

Sebastian's shock rendered him somewhat reaction-less, but after a couple of seconds, he started to move his lips against Dylan's. It had been so long since he'd done anything like this with someone; in fact, to be specific, the last person he had kissed was Blaine Anderson, two-and-a-half years ago. But this didn't feel at all the way it had felt to kiss the curly-haired brunette.

Sebastian's head finally caught up to the rest of him and he realized what he was doing. He shoved Dylan away with as much force as he possessed and jumped off of counter, fighting the urge to bolt from the house. "What the hell is wrong with you?" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "How could you do that? Especially here, in _your boyfriend's house_! We were talking about Adam not 30 minutes ago! I hate you so damn much right now!" Sebastian continued to scream.

"You kissed me back, so would you please just stop yelling at me?" Dylan replied whilst clenching his knuckles and bringing them up to his face.

"I-I," Sebastian struggled for words, "But I'm not the one who has a boyfriend that he just cheated on!"

"Don't you think I know that? I know what I did! And you're definitely not helping anything." Dylan felt like he couldn't breathe. Tears were burning his eyes and he was losing control over his voice.

Sebastian ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. He couldn't remember ever feeling this guilty in his life. He had no idea how he was supposed to face Adam ever again.

"You can't tell him," Dylan begged, a couple of tears breaking free and running down his cheeks, "Please, Sebastian, please. This didn't mean anything and there's no reason to upset him over this. Please."

"You want me to lie to me?" He asked incredulously.

"No, not lie," Dylan's breaths were coming quickly, "Just omit the truth."

"That's lying, Dylan!" Sebastian said harshly.

"Okay, okay. Dude, have you-have you ever been in love before?"

"What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Please just answer my question."

Sebastian heaved a sigh, "Yeah, I have. Once."

"Would you have wanted to give that up because you shared a meaningless kiss with someone else? Or would you work desperately to make it better?"

"Firstly, if I was really in love with someone, then I wouldn't care about making out with anyone else," Sebastian insisted. He would only find out later how wrong he actually was. "And secondly, my idea of fixing it wouldn't be to lie about it. I would tell him the truth and try to work things out from there."

"Yes well, some of us aren't like you. You never have to speak to me again, you never have to see me ever again, but please, I am practically on my knees, do not tell Adam about this. Please, Sebastian." More tears broke free.

Sebastian didn't know what to do. He stood there just staring at the other male before saying, "I have to go." He then turned around without another glance and exited the house. Dylan watched the door close as he continued to cry.

…

"Hello."

Sebastian jumped at the sudden voice. He was currently sitting in his aunt's living room, staring at men's health magazines and hadn't been expecting anyone to be there.

Adam grinned. "I didn't mean to scare you. My mom asked me to drop off a package for Arielle; I had no idea you'd be here. If I did, then I would have gone to a bit more trouble trying to convince you that there was a ghost in the house."

Sebastian tried to smile, but failed miserably when he remembered what he had been doing with the blonde male's boyfriend not a week ago. "It wouldn't have worked; I don't really believe in ghosts. I would probably have thought it to be an alien or something."

"You don't believe in ghosts, but you do however believe in aliens? You are a very complex person, aren't you? I haven't seen you in a while, how's your new job?"

"Great," He gestured for Adam to sit down, "According to Hal, I even have my very first groupie. So that's something."

"After hearing you sing, that doesn't surprise even surprise me. Seriously, you blew me away."

Sebastian smiled self-consciously. "Nah, I was okay. You should have heard some of the boys I went to school with. Especially these two guys, Hunter and Dominic. Strangely enough, they were brothers; well, kind of. But they were really great."

Adam stared at him and shook his head slightly. "I am going to say this one more time: you blew me away, Sebastian."

If he had been embarrassed before, it was nothing to what he felt right now. "Thank you."

"You are very welcome, but you really need to learn to take a compliment. So what you doing?"

"Uhhh, pretending to read this," He held up the magazine, "As you can tell, I'm pretty bored."

"I gathered. You know I think this is only the second time I've ever been in this house. The first was when I dropped my mom off here about a month after you…went to France. It's beautiful."

"Yeah. No one can say that Arielle wouldn't make a good interior designer," Sebastian chuckled nervously, feeling uncomfortable in Adam's presence, "Do you want to see my room?"

"Yes."

Sebastian led him down the short hallway and into the room at the end. The walls were white, with a couple of posters of bands here and there. The bed was unmade with a dirty shirt thrown on it. The dark brown shelf in the corner was lined with both books and CD's, and the rug in the centre of the room was folded over. "Heh," Sebastian scratched his head sheepishly, "It doesn't always look like this. Well actually it does, but I just tell people the opposite so they don't think I'm messy."

"You clearly haven't seen mine on a bad day," He chuckled, "But that's mostly Dylan. I shudder to think what he was like when he was a teenager."

The mention of the name sent a weird feeling down Sebastian's throat. Guilt. He remained quiet.

"Speaking of which, have you talked to him recently? Because he's been acting…different since last week and I have no idea why."

"Me? Uh, what? No, I haven't. Sorry."

Adam frowned slightly but didn't press the matter. Instead he walked over to Sebastian's bedside table and lifted one of photos, inspecting it. "Is this Kylien?"

"Yeah," He nodded, and then pointed to the other person, "That's Océane."

"Wow, she's so beautiful," Adam smiled, "They both look like extraordinary people."

"They are." Sebastian nodded thoughtfully.

"Have you received a letter from him recently?"

"A couple of days ago. Things are going great, he says. But I wish I knew if he actually meant it."

"Hmmm, sometimes people do that; keep things hidden because they think they're protecting you. But sometimes it isn't actually their decision to make. Sometimes they just have to trust you enough to be honest with you." Adam said.

"Do people do that with you?" Sebastian tried to sound casual.

"You could say that. Almost all of my past relationships ended because they cheated on me and tried to keep it a secret. They said it was because they didn't want to hurt me, but I would really have preferred the truth." He explained.

The guilt intensified. "Like Kurt?"

"Sort of. I suspected he still had feelings for Blaine, and so when I found out that they had…well, it didn't come as a surprise to me. Kurt is really sweet, but he was never meant for me. Are you alright?"

Sebastian hadn't even realized that he was clenching his fists. He released them and tried to breathe, but it got caught in his throat. The words were out before he could stop himself, "There's something that I need to tell you."

Adam frowned. "What?"

"It's about Dylan." He was still trying to decide if he should go through with this or not. He knew that Dylan loved Adam, and that the kiss had meant absolutely nothing, but didn't change the fact that it had happened. What bothered him most was that if he had done it once, what stopped him from doing it again?

"What about Dylan?"

"He begged me not to tell you, but I-I just-I am so sorry, Adam. No one meant for it to happen, I swear," The more he spoke, the more Adam seemed to back away from him, "He-Dylan, he kissed me. It was an accident and I swear it didn't mean anything. He loves you like crazy and he wouldn't never purposely do anything to hurt you-"

He was cut off, "Did you kiss him back?" Adam's voice was low, just like his eyes, which were currently staring at the floor.

Sebastian too hung his head. "No, I didn't. Well, at least, not when I realized what was happening. He caught me off guard and my instincts kicked in before my brain did, but I swear as soon as my senses came back to me, I pushed him away."

"So you did kiss him?" Adam looked back up and Sebastian could see the tears glistening in them, "I was wrong about you. I thought that you were actually a decent person; I guess I was wrong. About both of you." He moved to go.

"Wait!" Sebastian grabbed his arm, preventing him from going anywhere, "I should have told you sooner and I'm really sorry. It's just that Dylan begged me not to, and I knew that he made you happy and I was scared that if I told you, then you two would break up and it would probably be all my fault. And I'm sorry I didn't think and that I kissed him back, I swear I didn't mean to. I know that doesn't make it any better, but I just really had to tell you."

Adam stood with his back facing the other male. "If you weren't going to tell me, then what made you change your mind?"

"The stuff you just said, about how you wished that people would be honest with you instead of trying to spare your feelings. But I feel like I have to tell you that Dylan was in tears after it happened, he didn't mean it, I can assure you. You're like all he talks about. He loves you. A lot."

"Then why did he kiss you? If he loved me so much, then I doubt he would have felt the need to cheat on me with someone I used to consider a friend?" Adam asked coldly.

"I don't know, because he's an idiot. We all make bad choices sometimes, but it doesn't mean we meant to make them. It was stupid and impulsive, and like I said before, it didn't mean anything."

Adam now spun around so that he was once again facing Sebastian. A mixture of anger and hurt was present on his face, "That is where you're wrong. It did mean something. It means something to me. It means that you're both liars. I don't know who to be more mad at: him for initiating the kiss and then asking you not to tell me, or you for responding to his initiation and then agreeing to keep it all a secret from me." He was quiet for a moment before adding, "Why did your loyalty lie with him? I've known you longer and my mom is your aunt's best friend; why couldn't you just tell me the truth? This happened last week, didn't it? So that means I've been walking around for an entire week believing that my boyfriend loved me as much as I love him. Which he clearly doesn't."

"People are different, Adam. Maybe Dylan just isn't as good or honest as you are, but that doesn't necessarily mean he loves you less."

"So you're basically saying that he loves as much as he could, but even then he's going to cheat on me and I have to be okay with it? How is that fair? It just isn't fair." The last few words were whispered to himself.

"You're right, it isn't fair. It isn't right. But it happened. And as much as I wish it didn't, I can't go back and change what already happened. I can't take back what I did. And if you hate me for the rest of your life, then I suppose I understand. But I just really need you to know how desperately sorry I am. I haven't been able to sleep for days." Sebastian was fumbling for the right words, "And not that it matters anymore, I guess, but your friendship meant more to me than his did. It still does. I'm so sorry, Adam. So, so sorry."

Adam stared at nothing for an entire minute. "Why do they all do it, Sebastian? What is wrong with me? I almost feel as if I can't blame him for kissing you, since my other boyfriends did way worse. I just-I can't understand what it is about me that isn't ever enough for them. I just wish I understood." He looked like he was doing everything in his power to prevent himself from crying.

Sebastian opened his mouth to respond, but closed it before a single word could escape. "Adam," He breathed, a frown present on his features, "You can't actually believe that. This wasn't your fault. It never is."

"Then how come they all do it? I thought if I just got to know him first, then maybe, just maybe," Adam shook his head, "But he wasn't any different after all."

"Well maybe-maybe that's the problem. Maybe you just keep choosing the wrong guy."

Adam snorted. "Choose? You don't understand, do you? Look, I have to go. I'll see you." He sighed, then left the room with no more than a shake of his head.

Sebastian wanted to stop him again, but he knew the best thing right now would be to let Adam go. Running his fingers through his hair and sending himself a couple of mental messages to the effect of 'You stupid idiotic moron!', Sebastian took a seat on his bed and wondered if he had just made a huge mistake, or if being honest was in fact the best thing for everyone.

The incidents that took place no more than a few months later would eventually be the answer to his question.

**...**

**Please tell me what you thought! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Just a warning, I was sick when I wrote this, and so anything bad/wrong with the chapter can therefore be blamed on that :p**

…

Blaine knocked, his movements almost apprehensive. He still wasn't entirely sure whether or not he should do this, but decided to do it anyway. It felt like the right thing.

"Who the heck are you?" Asked the guy who answered the door. Blaine wondered if this man was always in such a good mood.

"Uh, I'm here to see Jeff. I'm a friend of his." He explained.

"You mean that weird conflicted blonde dude?"

"I guess." Blaine frowned.

"Whatever." The guy just shrugged and walked away.

Blaine took that as an indication that he could come inside. He did so hesitantly as he searched the suite for any signs of the familiar fair hair. Jeff found him first. "Blaine? What are you doing here?" He asked with a grin.

"Hi," Blaine returned the smile, "I came to see you."

"Really? Cool. I think that's the first time anyone who's actually enrolled here came to see _me_. And I'm sorry about Mike over there," Jeff nodded in the direction of the guy who had graciously answered the door a minute ago, "his girlfriend dumped him a few days ago. Then again, he's pretty much always like that."

"I can hear you, retard." Mike glared.

"I know." Jeff replied matter-of-factly.

"He called you conflicted?" Blaine arched an eyebrow.

The taller boy chuckled. "Mike doesn't believe that one can be gay _and _religious."

"Because it doesn't make any sense." He mumbled mostly to himself.

"Come on, I'll show you my room." Jeff grinned again.

Structurally, Jeff's room was very similar to Blaine's. There were, however, obvious differences; such as the increased size, the pictures that lined the walls, and the fact that there was only one single-bed. "Wow, you literally have your own room." Blaine said with a wistful sigh.

The blonde responded with a laugh. "Don't worry, buddy. Only two more years and you qualify for a transfer."

"Technically, it's only one and a half years, and I'm practically counting down the days. But that's not really why I'm here." Blaine admitted.

"Damn, I knew you weren't here for social purposes," Jeff actually looked sad for a second, "oh, but wait, I have something to tell you too."

"You do?"

"Yeah. I'm sort of expecting someone…it's an old friend of mine and you know him." He said with a faint grimace.

"What's that expression for?" Blaine asked skeptically.

"Um, well, you two were never exactly the best of friends. Although, honestly, I'm not really sure why you didn't get along, because you're both really nice people." Jeff's words were rushed.

"Jeff."

"When he gets here, please don't leave. I mean, you can leave if you want to, I'm not going to kidnap you or anything, but please don't leave just because he's here. That's kinda…well, mean." He was speaking fast again.

"Jeff," Blaine gave him a reassuring smile, "whoever it is, I'm sure we'll get along just fine now. I'm a little too old for teenage grudges."

"I'm glad you see it that way, because it's Dominic." He braced himself for impact.

"Oh," Blaine did his best to conceal the blatant dislike of the aforementioned young man, "it's good that you two are still friends after all this time."

"Well, he was one of my best friends back in high school, and thanks to the existence of technology, there was no reason for us to lose touch. But I haven't seen him in over a year." Jeff smiled.

"Then, uh, are you sure you want me here? I don't want to intrude or anything…" He was hoping for an easy way out.

"Dude, we're not dating! It's not like we need privacy." Jeff laughed.

"I know, I just thought-never mind. Look, I just really need to tell you something; preferably before Dominic gets here." Blaine really didn't want to have this conversation in front of anyone else. Especially not Dominic Winters.

Jeff's smile faded and his expression was suddenly serious. "Okay."

"It-it's about Sebastian." He all but whispered the name.

The taller boy froze as the hint of something that resembled fear swept across his features. He didn't say anything; he felt momentarily paralyzed.

"He's here. He's in New York. I saw him a few days ago at this place called _Hal's Heaven._" Blaine released the breath he hadn't even realized he was holding.

Jeff blinked. "Sebastian-Sebastian's okay?"

"Yeah," He nodded, "At least as far as I could tell. He's alive, which is more than what I was expecting."

"Me too. For a second there I thought you were going to tell me that he was, you know, dead. So wait; he's actually here in New York?" Jeff's shoulders relaxed.

"He is. I don't know why or for how long, but he was here a few days ago. I'm pretty sure he works at that place I just mentioned. You, uh, should maybe go see him." Blaine suggested. He knew for a fact that Sebastian would never talk to him, but the latter had absolutely no reason to hate Jeff.

The former Warbler's expression quickly changed from relief to that of subtle anger. "Why would I want to do that? I have nothing to say to him. If you want to talk to him, then do it yourself, but don't drag me into this because you were the one who screwed everything up."

Blaine flinched. "I-I'm sorry. I just thought-"

"Well clearly you thought wrong." Jeff snapped.

"Right," He said sadly "I should probably go. I'm sorry I told you."

A sigh. "No, wait. I'm being a jerk, please don't go."

Blaine stopped walking. "You're not the jerk, I am. I've always been the jerk. A stupid cowardly jerk who really did screw everything up. But I did it all on purpose."

Jeff frowned, not entirely sure how to respond to that. "What do you mean?"

Before he could reply however, there was another knock at the door. No one had to tell Blaine who it was; he already knew.

"Jeffy!" Dominic rushed into the room and threw his arms around Jeff, crushing him in a bear hug. The latter started to laugh, returning the gesture enthusiastically. The embrace lasted for almost an entire minute, the two boys chuckling the entire time. Blaine couldn't help but smile.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't little Blaine Anderson." Dominic smirked when he finally noticed the brunette in the corner.

"Hi, Dominic." He replied, his words completely emotionless.

"Hi." The response held the same amount of affection. "I'm not interrupting, am I?" Dominic turned back to Jeff with a cheeky smile.

"No. I was expecting you, remember?" He shrugged. "So how was your flight? How's Pennsylvania? How's Raquel? How are Mr. and Mrs. Clarington? How's Hunter? How's Penn State?" Each one of his questions seemed to fuel an additional one.

"Uhh, my flight was fine. Pennsylvania's cool; my sister is my sister; my parents are constantly complaining about being abandoned by their kids, but other than that they're doing great; Hunter is doing what he's always wanted to do, so I guess he's good too; and Penn State is freakin amazing!" Dominic exclaimed.

"You're in Penn State?" Blaine's eyes widened slightly.

"Yup. Chemical Engineering." He grinned proudly.

"Wow. I totally don't feel intellectually inadequate standing next to the two of you now." Blaine mumbled dryly.

"Ah come on, not everyone can be pretty _and _smart. But apparently we can." Dominic winked at Jeff, who just rolled his eyes with a smile. "So, what were you guys talking about before I graced you with my gracious presence?"

"Um," Jeff looked at the shorter male, not sure if he should be honest. But since Blaine gave no indication of any kind, he was forced to decide for himself. "We were talking about Sebastian."

Dominic blinked. "Sebastian? As in the guy who's better at making himself disappear than any magician on earth?"

"That's the one." Blaine confirmed softly.

"Wha-what about him?" He shared the nervous expression his blonde friend had worn earlier.

"He's in New York. Blaine saw him." Jeff replied.

"So he's not dead?"

"No!" Blaine said defensively.

"What's he doing here?"

"The only thing I know is where he works. We didn't exactly have an in-depth conversation."

"I wonder why that could be." Dominic's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Yeah, I know, I messed up; I'm sorry I'm not perfect. Can we please just move on now?" Blaine crossed his arms and addressed the tallest male in the room. "You know as well as I do that he probably has absolutely nothing to say to me, and yes, that's understandable. But he has no reason to not want to talk to you."

Dominic frowned. "What are you suggesting?"

"I'm not 'suggesting' anything. I'm asking you to go see him."

"And let me guess; you want me to come back here and repeat his every word back to you?"

"No. I only need to know that he's okay. Nothing more, nothing less." Blaine heaved a sigh.

Dominic studied him for a moment. "Fine. But I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing it because he used to be my friend too. You know, before you went and screwed him over." He said the last part coldly.

Blaine didn't react. This was nothing compared to the hostility he had received for the last few months of his high school career. And strangely enough, the worst of it had not come from Dominic. It had come from Jeff.

…

Sebastian climbed off the stage slowly. His leg was acting up again and every step was excruciating. Dylan was waiting for him near the exit, wearing the saddest expression he had ever seen on the elder male. Sebastian grabbed Dylan by the forearm and led him outside, across the street, and onto one of the benches that decorated the park there.

"Talk." Sebastian commanded.

"He finally agreed to meet me." Dylan's eyes looked glassy as he stared into the distance.

"Considering your face looks like someone just kicked your kitten, I assumed as much. I want to know what he said."

"At first he just sat there, saying nothing. Then after a few minutes he asked me if I liked you. I told him maybe, but that the kiss was never supposed to happen. I said that it had been a momentary lapse of all logic and judgment…on both our parts. I promised him that it would never ever happen again, and that I loved him more than I had ever loved anyone in my life. I told him that he was everything to me." A few tears were making their way down his cheeks, the moonlight making them look like glistening lines.

"What did he say after that?" Sebastian asked gently.

"He was quiet again for a while. But then he asked if I would take it back if I could, and I instantly said yes. I said it over and over. That's when he-Adam hugged me. I held him back and thought that he was saying goodbye." Dylan looked up and frowned.

Sebastian's brow furrowed too. "And was he?"

He shook his head. "No." The word was barely a whisper.

"You lost me." Sebastian admitted.

"He wasn't saying goodbye. He was forgiving me," Dylan sniffed, making it hard for Sebastian to hear him clearly, "Adam said that he loved me too much to let something like this get in the way of what we have. But dude, I knew he was lying; I could see it in his eyes. At first I was a bit confused. Why would he lie? Why wouldn't he just dump my sorry ass like any normal person should have done?"

Sebastian said nothing when Dylan paused. He had no idea where this was going.

"Then he kissed me," Dylan covered his mouth as a sob threatened to escape, "and I desperately wanted to forget it all. I desperately wanted us to go back to what we were before. I just wanted him to be happy again, and I wanted to be the one to make him feel that way."

Sebastian couldn't help but share in the sadness as he listened to Dylan's words. There was no denying how much he loved his boyfriend. For the first time since his outburst of uncontrollable honesty toward Adam, Sebastian suddenly felt really guilty.

Placing his arm around Dylan's shoulders, he pulled the older the man closer and held him tight. Dylan continued, "I couldn't just ignore the nagging feeling at the back of my head that told me something was wrong. I tried to, but it wouldn't go away. Then it came to me; the reason that Adam was lying, the reason that he was taking me back. He was scared. He didn't want to be alone."

"Why would he be alone?" Sebastian wondered.

"Did you know that I'm the fifth guy who's cheated on him. _Fifth_. Can you imagine what that must do to someone's self-esteem? I knew he was only taking me back because he thought that I was what he deserved; an arrogant asshole who is incapable of putting other people first. Someone like Adam Crawford deserves a thousand times better than that." Dylan went silent for a moment. "So I broke up with him."

Sebastian froze. "You did what?"

"He didn't want to believe me when I told him that I was the problem in the relationship, not him. Adam truly believes that it must be him who keeps messing up, not all the guys who cheated on him. That's the craziest thing I have ever heard. I told him this too and he started to cry. I then made him listen as I explained that I wasn't going to let him sell himself short by dating someone who clearly doesn't deserve him. Adam went really quiet after that." Dylan had buried his head in Sebastian's shoulder. He didn't make a habit of crying in front of other people, but when he did, he almost always tried to hide the tears.

After a minute of silence, Sebastian broke it, "You're not incapable of putting other people before yourself. What you did for Adam was the opposite of selfish. Contrary to what you may believe, Dylan, you are a good guy."

"Maybe. But not good enough for Adam." He whispered. Another minute of silence. "I should probably get home. I'm staying with my mom until I can find other accommodation."

"I met her once. She's really pretty." Sebastian smiled.

"Yeah, she is. I'll see you around, okay? And, um, Adam doesn't blame you. You should try to talk to him; he'll need all the friends he can get."

"What about you?"

"That's not how this goes. I don't get the pity, I get the resentment. The system works for a reason, I guess." Dylan patted Sebastian's shoulder, "Thank you."

As much as Sebastian would have preferred to stay on the bench the whole night, he knew he needed to go back to _Hal's Heaven _to collect his guitar and case. With a groan he pushed himself up, his leg even more painful than it had been when he sat down. He didn't stop cursing until he successfully reached his destination and, more importantly, a chair.

Sebastian watched with disinterest as people came and went. He longed for his bed, but the thought of having to drive all the way back to Arielle's house seemed like way too much trouble. So he remained seated. After half an hour of being bored out of his mind, the waitress, Jessie, came to sit beside him. "I wish I had a voice like yours. That way I could come in here three times a week, sing a couple of songs, and then spend the rest of the night making use of the 'free alcohol for the entertainers' rule." She heaved a long sigh.

"I've never made use of that rule." Sebastian stated blankly.

"Oh, I know. But I sure as hell would," Jessie grinned, "What's on your mind, anyway? You seem kinda down."

"Just some stuff. Nothing that won't blow over in a couple of weeks." He replied.

"If you're sure. Hey, you hungry? I'm good friends with the chef."

"Actually, food sounds really good right about now." Sebastian realized he hadn't eaten anything since the apple he had for breakfast.

She smiled at him again before disappearing into the kitchen. Despite her not being able to see him, he returned the smile. He couldn't help but like that girl.

"Sebastian?" The voice had come from behind him. Well, it would have been strange if it had come from in front of him, since there was nothing but a wall. Turning around slowly, he met the eyes of the man who had spoken.

"Dominic?" Sebastian breathed. His eyes went wide as a smile tugged at his lips.

Dominic was rendered speechless. He hadn't been counting on the effect that seeing his old friend again would have on him.

Sebastian rose from his chair and took a step forward. "How did you find me?"

"One of the waitresses told me that you were sitting here." He blinked.

Sebastian broke into a grin. "I meant, how did you know to come look for me?"

Dominic wasn't going to lie. "Blaine told me."

He nodded; he had figured as much. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"It has." Dominic couldn't help but smile too.

What Sebastian did next was so far away from what he would have done a few years ago. He closed the distance between them and threw his arms around Dominic, who didn't hesitate to return the embrace. Chuckling, it was the latter who eventually pulled away, "Time has been good to you."

"You don't look so bad yourself," Sebastian gestured for him to sit down, "Do you live here?"

"In New York? No. I live in Pennsylvania; I'm only here visiting some friends." He purposely avoided mentioning Jeff's name. "What about you?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say I live here now. But it's sort of temporary."

"Have you been here all this time?" Dominic had been itching to know.

"Um, no. I only came back to America about a month ago. I stayed in France before then." He explained.

"Wow, France. I can totally see you as the snail-eating type."

Sebastian snorted. "So, what do you do? Are you in college?"

"You could say that," He nodded, "I'm in Penn State. Chemical Engineering…I never get tired of saying that."

"Well, I'm a struggling musician."

They both laughed. "I always knew you were going places." Dominic mocked.

"I know, right?" Sebastian's smile faded as a thought crossed his mind. "It's sort of long time coming, but…I'm sorry. I should never have left without saying goodbye."

He bowed his head and studied the table. "You don't have to apologize. I get it. Things were tough and you needed a break; I've been there. The only difference being our methods of running away. But I know what it's like, and therefore I get why you did it."

"But?"

"_But _other people might not understand as well as I do."

"What do you mean?"

Dominic studied his face. "A couple of people got really angry after you left."

"Angry? Why would they be mad at me?" Sebastian blinked.

"Well, it was kind of the second time you vanished without telling anyone. And not everyone was mad at _you_, some of us, mainly me, blamed a certain midget." He admitted.

"Please don't call him that. And you said 'some of us', who else blamed him?"

"…Jeff." Dominic said hesitantly.

"Jeff? He was mad at Blaine?"

He nodded. "To be fair, he actually blames both of you."

"You say 'blames' like it's in the present tense…"

More hesitation on Dominic's part. "He forgave Blaine about a year or so ago, but he's not quite gotten to that point with you yet. I tried to get him to come with me tonight; you know, to speak with you in person. He refused."

Sebastian smiled bitterly as a memory flashed through his mind.

_Hugging his knees up to his chest, he looked over at the white page whose very existence was in itself a harsh reminder of his failure. But he wasn't going to let it win. Knocking over the half-empty beer bottle, he reached for the paper, being extra careful not to let any of his blood stain the white ink. Staring intently at the top of the page, Sebastian quickly realized that there was only one thing written on it: a name. No more than one syllable. There were so many words going through his mind, so many things that were unsaid, but his shaking hands refused to write it down. _

_Growling in frustration, he angrily tore the piece of paper into a million smaller pieces, not stopping until each piece was physically too small to be torn further. When he realized what he had done, the loneliness came back, hitting him like a wave of ice-cold reality. "No," Sebastian whispered, trying to gather the pieces again. It was no use, there was just too many of them. And no matter how hard he tried, they just wouldn't stop sticking to his hands. The paper no longer mattered anyway; he had gotten blood all over it. _

_Sighing in defeat, he got up onto his unsteady legs and walked over to the bathroom where he commenced to study his reflection in the mirror. What he saw made him cringe inside. Sebastian could barely recognize himself through the bloodshot eyes, the unruly hair, and the dangerously pale skin. His cheekbones were more pronounced than usual and his face more angled than he had ever seen it. The more he stared, the sicker he felt. He mentally reprimanded himself for allowing things to get this bad. He was supposed to be stronger than this. _

_Deciding that he couldn't take it anymore, he grabbed the first solid thing he could find, which happened to be the nearly-full bottle of black ink that he had acquired only days before, and swung it full-force at the dirty mirror. Glass smashed against glass as the black liquid splattered onto the walls. Sebastian found the site oddly amusing and chuckled as he realized that the ink had somehow reached his face. The laughter was shallow and only affected his lips. His eyes remained cold and detached. _

"Sebastian? Yo, dude, you still here?" Dominic waved a hand in front of his face with an obvious expression of concern.

"I need to go," Sebastian rose from his chair so quickly that it toppled over from the force, "it was really great seeing you again." He all but ran out of the building, completely forgetting about the guitar case that was still lying under the table.

Dominic frowned in absolute confusion. _What the hell, _he thought to himself.

He shook his head and was just about to leave as well when his foot kicked something solid and heavy. It was a black case, presumably for a guitar. Picking it up for further inspection, he noticed that there was a small white tag on it with black printed letters that spelled, '_Propriété de Kylien Clément'_, and under that there were additional hand-written letters that spelled, '_Et Sebastian Saint-Romain'_.

Dominic knew enough of the language to know that the words were French. Unfortunately though, he couldn't speak it, but assumed _Propriété' _meant 'property'. In which case the guitar did in fact belong to Sebastian and whoever this Kylien guy was. Sighing dramatically, Dominic picked up the guitar case and took it with him as he walked the short distance back to his car.

…

**A/N: It took me a few tries to write this and I still don't like it…but oh well. I hope you guys did. **

**I need to say thank you to every single one of you who reviewed, I honestly wish I could personally thank you all, but unfortunately I don't have a lot of time on the internet : ( Also thank you to those who followed/favorited. It really means a lot to me : )**

**Spoiler for the next chapter: Blaine and Seb run into each other again, and things become less awkward. Sort of. **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Once again, I apologize for the delay. I have so many assignments and projects and essays it's a wonder I still find time to sleep…Luckily its Friday and I managed to finally get this one done! I really hope you guys like it : )**

…

"What exactly am I supposed to do here?" Alex complained as he scowled at the building in front of him.

"Smuggle firearms. Duh." Sebastian replied without casting a look at his annoyed cousin.

"Just stay close to me, Alex. I need to go find Sarah and Melanie." Arielle said mostly to herself.

"Sarah?" Sebastian turned to her. "Adam isn't with her, is he?"

"I doubt it," She responded before realizing what her nephew had said. She frowned, "Why? Are you trying to avoid him?"

"Um, no. I was just wondering." He shrugged non-convincingly.

Arielle decided not to press the matter further and headed straight for the entrance, already fishing her wallet out of her bag. Alex followed, but not before shooting his slightly-younger cousin a menacing glare. Sebastian rolled his eyes. For some reason, he hesitated and instead explored the surrounding areas before finally heading into the large white building. He payed the fee at the door, then stopped in his tracks when he stepped over the threshold.

He had not been anticipating the amount of people crowded into this one room. There were men and women of all ages crammed into a too-small space and it made Sebastian feel instantly claustrophobic. Taking a deep breath, he ventured further into his surroundings, ignoring the voice at the back of his mind that told him to turn around and flee. It was only after he reminded himself that this was a fundraiser for underprivileged kids in Africa that he returned to normal and did what he always did when he was confronted with something that made him uncomfortable: he simply ignored it.

Sebastian had been on his way to the snacks table, but his attention quickly shifted when he saw a bunch of kids sitting around a small table at the other end of the room. They were all African, and they were all between the ages of 4 and 10. He noticed that they seemed somewhat uncomfortable and bored, and wondered whose stupid idea it was to bring the poor kids to an event like this. It seemed like they were only here to prove a point. Sebastian was pissed off.

He headed over to them and smiled. "Hi there."

Most of the kids looked a bit scared, or at least intimidated. All but one. One of the smallest children, a little girl, grinned up at him. "Hello."

"You can speak English, huh?" Sebastian widened his own smile and knelt down in front of her.

The girl nodded proudly.

"What's your name, sweetheart? I'm Sebastian."

"Like the crab!" She giggled. "My new name is Lilly."

"Your new name?" Sebastian frowned. "What's your old name?"

"Abena. But everyone here calls me Lilly. I don't know why."

"I don't either. I think Abena is beautiful. What are you guys doing? You don't look like you're having a lot of fun?"

Abena looked hesitant, almost like she was afraid to answer him. Sebastian did his best to smile reassuringly before adding, "I know I'm not having any fun here. Don't you think there are too many people?"

She nodded.

"I happen to agree. How about I sneak you and your friends out of here and we can take a walk in the garden? Would you like that?" Sebastian was reasonably certain that he was not allowed to take these kids anywhere, especially not outside, but his sympathy for them far outweighed his fears of going to prison.

Abena nodded again, the smile returning to her features. She turned around and spoke frantically to her companions in a language that Sebastian didn't even begin to understand. The other kids' faces lit up simultaneously.

Taking Abena's hand in his, he led her and her peers toward the exit, praying silently that no one would intercept them before they could make a clean escape. His prayers were heard and he breathed a sigh of relief when the man at the door didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary and they had successfully reached outside.

A few of the kids giggled and began to chase each other across the grassy lawn. Abena didn't follow them. She remained standing next to Sebastian, her hand never releasing his. Looking down at her with curiosity, he asked, "Are your parents here?"

"No. I don't have parents, none of us do. But even though we," She gestured to her friends, "don't come from the same mommy and daddy, they are still my brothers and sisters. I'd never go anywhere without them."

"Of course not. You guys look out for each other, don't you?"

Abena nodded absentmindedly. "I used to have a bigger sister, but I don't have her anymore."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. One day she just wasn't there anymore." She was lost in her thoughts for a moment before craning her neck to look up at Sebastian. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

This was a tricky question to answer. "I guess you could say that. I do have a brother and a sister, but I haven't spoken to them in years."

"Why? Did you have a fight?"

"In a way. We're a family, but we don't get along too well. I guess we just…see things differently."

"Are they colorblind?" Abena frowned.

Sebastian laughed. "No. I just meant that everyone's brains work differently, and theirs work a little _too _different."

"Oh. But you do still love them, right? I think my mommy and daddy love me. Wherever they are." She smiled.

"Yes, I do love them. And I happen to know that your parents miss you very much." He touched her nose as grinned at her.

"How do you know?" Abena was skeptical.

"Perk of being a grown up, sometimes you just know things."

"I thought big people were supposed to know everything."

Sebastian chuckled. "Well, I know plenty of people who like to think they know everything, but there is a very big difference between what you think and what you know."

Confusion was present all over her face. "What?"

Kneeling down to her height, he said, "No one can know everything. But some people, like you, grow up to be really, really smart. Smart enough to make everyone else feel dumb. And then one day you will meet a little angel who will make you the cleverest person on earth. You know why? Because in their eyes, you will be."

Sebastian doubted that Abena understood exactly what he was saying, but it didn't matter, because she understood enough. Giggling, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He returned the embrace, a wave of melancholy washing over him so intense that he suddenly had to fight the urge to cry. Pulling back, he grinned again. "Are you hungry? They have all the sugar you could possibly imagine on that magic table inside."

"The table isn't magic."

"Clearly, child, you have never had a sugar rush before. I think it's about time we changed that, don't you think?"

Still smiling, Abena went to collect her friends before following Sebastian as he re-entered the overcrowded interior. Abena clutched the back of his pants, scared that someone might force her to separate from her new friend.

Looking at the large variety of food on the rectangular table, her eyes widened slightly. She had never seen so much food in one place before. Her stomach responded with a growl. "I can have anything?" She wondered.

"Of course. Wait, you don't have any allergies, do you?" Sebastian said.

"No. According to the doctor I'm really healthy."

"Then eat away, little one." He smiled as he took a bite of something that had probably been recycled in sugar. He frowned at the unidentifiable food substance before shrugging and taking another bite.

"I wouldn't eat that if I were you. The chefs in this place haven't even reached junior high yet; their method of cooking includes, and is limited to, frying everything in sugar, oil, or both."

Sebastian blinked at the young man who had spoken. He was tall, with sandy blonde hair and eyes so dark they appeared almost black. "But it tastes so good." Sebastian replied, casting a sad look at the food item in his hand.

He laughed. "I'm just messing with you. I happen to be the one that will be held responsible if anyone leaves this place a spontaneous diabetic."

Sebastian grinned. "Ah, but a lifelong and potentially deadly disease will be worth it if I can take a few of these home with me. Seriously, I don't think I could ever eat anything else again."

"Don't worry, you won't feel like that for ever. It will only be until the marijuana's effects ware off." He only managed to keep a straight face for about two second before laughing again. "Still messing with you. I am deeply honored that you like my, uh…I really want to say baking, but somehow I don't think what I did counts as actual baking. Thanks anyway."

Chuckling, he extended his arm. "I'm Sebastian. You better remember my name. I am, after all, your first fan."

"I shall thank you one day when I receive my Nobel Prize for substitute cooking. I'm Gabriel." They shook hands.

"Nice to meet you. So, uh, just out of curiosity, those kids are allowed to eat this stuff? I mean, their digestive system won't, like, commit suicide or something?"

Gabriel peered over Sebastian's shoulder and stared at Abena and her friends grinning as they ingested different types of desserts. "Nah, they'll be fine. Although I am sort of impressed that you managed to get them to eat something. Many of us, including me, have tried and failed. They don't seem to like us Americans very much."

"I don't like us much either. So, why are they here?"

"They're orphans from Africa. They don't have any family they could stay with, so the foundation brought them over here with the intention of finding people to adopt them. The problem is that most of them don't speak English, and even the ones who do speak don't seem to be interested in communicating with us. Currently they are staying with one of the founders of this whole thing," He gestured around them, "but it's only temporary."

"They're not going to try and split them up, are they?"

Gabriel shook his head. "That's partly why it's so hard to find them a home. Not many people are all that willing and able to adopt seven children at once."

"Hmmmm," Sebastian agreed, "I've never understood peoples' abilities to abandon their own children. Somehow it just seems like it should go against our most basic instincts."

"Yeah," He nodded his agreement, "Do you have any kids?"

Sebastian nearly choked on the cup of coffee he had brought up to his lips, "Nope. My aunt would probably kill me in my sleep if I got someone pregnant. Luckily for her, that's not something she has to ever worry about."

He frowned, not quite understanding what Sebastian meant.

"I'm gay. I'm about as attracted to girls as you are to me."

Gabriel smirked and nodded slowly. "You're that sure I'm not attracted to guys?"

Sebastian grinned cheekily. "Well, are you?"

"That would depend on your definition of 'attracted to', I guess." He responded casually.

"Is there more than one?" Sebastian inquired.

"Of course there is. One can merely observe that someone is attractive without actually being tempted to act on said observations."

"You know what I think? I think that you have spent way too many hours of your life over thinking things," Sebastian observed, taking a step toward Gabriel, "which in itself proves that you're attracted to me."

The latter laughed. "Okay, I have to hear this. What precisely does the one have to do with the other?"

"Well," He grinned, dragging out the syllable, "I happen to know that it is a tendency for gay men to over think things. Straight men only think about as far as the nearest strip club."

"What about bisexuals?"

"I guess they would over think things _inside _ofthe strip club."

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I believe that you have over-thought over-thinking things." Gabriel smiled.

"That is a very probable possibility, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong. You should believe me. I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, but I can speak French, so, yeah…" Sebastian laughed, infecting the slightly younger blonde.

Gabriel smiled shyly, "If I were to ask you for your number, would you ever consider giving it to me?"

"Hmmmm," He pretended to think deeply about it, "In this economy with all the weirdo's and perverts and stalkers and serial killers…I'm kidding! Give me your hand." Sebastian spotted a pen lying nearby and used it to write his number down on the palm of Gabriel's left hand.

"This is your real number, isn't it? This girl once gave me a fake one that ended up putting me straight through to the local psyche ward. That was awkward."

He laughed. "Damn, why didn't I think of that? It's-it's mine. I wouldn't mess with someone like that."

"I believe you." Gabriel smiled.

"Sorry, Gabe, but Diego needs your help with counting the-" Blaine froze when he discovered the identity of the man conversing with his suite-mate. "Uhhh, never mind." He turned around so abruptly he felt his neck click.

Whilst Gabriel frowned in confusion, Sebastian heaved a sigh and said, "It's nice to know that some things never change. Like your tendency to run away from things."

Blaine stopped in his tracks. "What?"

"You heard me."

The raven-haired male turned slowly until he was once again face-to-face with his old friend. "If I remember correctly, Sebastian, it was you who left. Not me."

Sebastian took a step forward, oblivious to the stunned Gabriel, and narrowed his eyes. "There is more than one way of running away from things, _Blaine_. Don't think yours is any better than mine."

"Do you really want to do this here? Now?"

Sebastian shrugged. "Why the hell not? Not still embarrassed to be seen with me in public, are you?"

"Oh yeah, that's really mature." Blaine scoffed.

"Mature? Really? _Mature?_ What the heck do you know about being mature?"

Stiffening, he forced the words that threatened to escape to the back of his throat, and instead came out with, "I am not going to do this here with you. You're better than that and it's not fair to you. And Gabe, don't worry, I'll go help Diego." With a forced smile he walked off back into the direction he had come from.

Sebastian blinked in surprise, not entirely sure what had just happened. He was having a hard time understanding why the sight of Blaine had caused him to become so angry. For months and months Blaine had been all that he could think about, but very rarely had what he felt upon the arrival of said memories been anger. Sorrow, confusion, regret, masochism, grief, longing…these had all been present. The closest thing he had ever come to feeling angry was a dark desire to get even.

"Sebastian, you okay?" Gabriel gently touched his shoulder. "What was that? How do you know Blaine?"

"Uh, we were friends back in high school. It's been a while." He replied, barely paying attention.

"Just friends, huh? The good ones are never available." Gabriel mumbled to himself.

"What?" Sebastian turned and frowned.

"Nothing. I don't know what happened between the two of you, but uh, there's obviously some unresolved stuff going on. Maybe you should go talk to him. I don't mean to butt into your business or anything, but Blaine's a pretty good friend of mine and the fact that he's never mentioned you kinda says something to me."

"That he would prefer to forget about me?"

"I don't know. But leaving things unresolved has never helped anyone before." He said.

Sebastian sighed and craned his neck, spotting Blaine at the opposite side of the room talking to a cute Latino boy. This was the first time he'd had the opportunity to observe the former from a distance, and with the new perspective he noticed that Blaine had stopped using so much gel in his hair. There were dark curls folding over onto his forehead and in Sebastian's eyes, he was more beautiful than ever. "It's more complicated than you think. And before you get the wrong idea, the two of us were never anything more than friends."

"Right," Gabriel responded, clearly skeptical, "But that still doesn't change the fact that you clearly want to go over there. Trust your gut, man."

"No. Not now, anyway. I think I'm just gonna leave him for a bit. Maybe later." That was the end of it. Sebastian went back to facing the blonde.

Gabriel shrugged as if to say 'your choice'. "Hey, how do you feel about slavery?"

"Um, the same as everyone else I guess. Publicly I despise it, but secretly I wish someone would do everything I'm too lazy to do and not get paid for it." He grinned before adding, "Just in case you think I'm sort of psycho, I was kidding."

"What I actually meant was how do you feel about slavery when you happen to be the slave? I could really use some help in the kitchen, but alas, this is a charity and I'm legally obligated to not pay you."

"That sounds perfect. The part about helping you, not the 'not getting payed' part. But I'm good with that too." Sebastian smiled, happy for the change of subject. Gabriel smiled too and took hold of the former's wrist, leading him to a narrow door that was cleverly camouflaged due to it being the same color as the surrounding walls.

For the next two hours Sebastian busied himself with assisting Gabriel, who turned out to be a much better chef than he had given himself credit for. Sebastian wasn't entirely clueless himself when it came to cooking and therefore proved to be a very valuable asset in the kitchen. The pair chatted endlessly during the course of it all. Sebastian told Gabriel about his stay in France, and the latter was particularly curious about the French cuisine. It was then Gabriel's turn to talk and he explained about his life in The New School; about classes, the dorms, his fellow students.

"There may be a lot of people here, but there aren't _that _many. What is up with all this food?" Sebastian found himself asking.

Gabriel chuckled. "This isn't for the people out there. All this food will go into sealed containers that will be put onto a ship or a plane and exported to the kids in Africa. That is sort of what this whole foundation is about."

"So not only do they raise money, but they also feed them?"

"They also collect donations. Toys, clothes, stationery, blankets, medicine, you name it. Everyone does the best they can," Gabriel stopped what he was doing and stared at Sebastian with a sad expression, "But we all know that it will never be enough."

"If that's the way you look at it, then yeah, you're probably right."

"I'm just being realistic. Anyway, I think we're done here. The kitchen will be closing soon. I can't thank you enough for your help." He smiled as he washed his hands.

"I'm just glad I could help. But you know, it's not enough. I mean, I wanna do more. Seriously. If the foundation does something like this again, or anything really, please call me. I wanna help."

Gabriel studied him for a moment before his smile widened. "Sure. That would be great."

Sebastian grinned. "Yeah."

"Look, I gotta go. I have a ton of assignments that are due on Monday; why the hell did I ever decide to go to college? But uh, I'll see you around, okay? It was really nice meeting you."

"You too." He hesitated before adding, "Don't forget to call me, okay?"

Gabriel grinned broadly. Then he was gone.

Sebastian had returned to the main room with the intention of tracking down Arielle and Alex, but ended up spotting Blaine instead. He was sitting by himself near the table that kids had been occupying a few hours ago, and staring at some pamphlet that he was holding. Sebastian decided that it was time. He couldn't keep avoiding his past forever; it was time to put everything behind him. It was something that Kylien had been telling him since they had first met, and he had learnt his lesson in trying to prove that Frenchman wrong. His newfound determination gave him confidence as he strode across the room, not even asking permission before he sat down opposite Blaine. The aforementioned brunette barely looked at him, not even a little surprised by the sudden presence.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to come to talk to me." Blaine said softly.

"How could you even be so sure that I would?"

"You're here, aren't you?"

"That's not an answer."

"You wouldn't be happy with my answer." Blaine insisted.

"Why did you send Dominic to come talk to me? You could have just-you could have just come yourself, you know." Sebastian said.

"I didn't think you'd wanna see me. I don't blame you for it, but I honestly believed that I was one of the last people on earth you would want to see."

"That's not really the point here. You're supposed to _want _to come see me. Regardless of how angry I get. That shouldn't matter to you."

"And _you're _supposed to hate me. Do you? Hate me?" Blaine finally met Sebastian's eyes.

The latter hesitated. He knew he could never hate Blaine Anderson, but did he want Blaine to know that? "No," Sebastian admitted reluctantly, "I don't hate you."

The shorter brunette went back to staring at his pamphlet. "Oh."

"Why do we even care? I mean, it's going on three years now. We were barely more than kids; why are we acting like you killed my mother or something? Why is what happened that year so damn important? We both moved on with our lives. We both grew up. So, please tell me, why are we still acting like teenagers about this?"

At first Blaine said nothing. He was pondering Sebastian's words. "Once again, you don't want to know my answer. And I don't want to give it."

"Fine. But just…say something. I feel like I'm talking to myself here."

"I don't know what to say to you, Sebastian. For longer than I care to admit I daydreamed about what it would be like if I ever ran into you again. I imagined what I would say; what I would do. I thought about what you would be like. How much you'd have changed. I wish I could go back to those dreams, because the reality is a bit of a letdown."

"You know what? I think I preferred when I was talking to myself." Sebastian glared.

"I didn't mean you. I was talking about me. In my mind I had the courage to say the things that I can't say to you right now. Things you probably don't even want to hear." Blaine looked up again and Sebastian would have sworn that those familiar hazel eyes were brighter than usual. "I don't know how to talk to you, or what to say. Despite us being in the same room right now, I feel like we're galaxies apart."

Sebastian understood exactly what he meant. "Maybe. But in a sense, that's the way it's always been. Back when we were-before I turned eighteen, being around you meant that I didn't have to be around me, if that makes any sense. Back then I wanted to be as far as possible from my life, and you gave me that. But now…I like my life. I have no desire to be anywhere else."

Blaine nodded. "After you left, there was no one your friends hated more than they hated me. I'm not going to go into details about what they said to me, but the only reason they acted that way, was because we were all convinced that the next time we saw you, it'd be at your funeral. They said I was a murderer."

Sebastian blinked. He wondered who would have been mean enough to say something like to Blaine. Then he found himself wondering why he even cared. "Yeah, well, I'm not dead. But it warms me to know how much faith you all had in me."

"Oh come on, don't be such a drama queen. I saw you the night that you left; you were anything but stable. So yeah, we were afraid that you might repeat history, only this time we wouldn't be there to find you."

Sebastian was momentarily silent. "You know, I went to France. After I left Ohio, I mean."

"Really? Did you like it there?"

He nodded.

"Is that where you've been this entire time?" Blaine asked.

"Almost. I came back about two months ago."

"Why'd you come back?"

"A friend of mine convinced me to. I'm glad he did." Sebastian wasn't sure why he added that last part.

"So am I." Blaine whispered.

"Are you? Are you really? You don't look all that happy to me."

"I never said that I was happy, only that I'm happy you came back. Seeing you has never made me unhappy, Sebastian. I just…it doesn't matter."

Sebastian's attention was distracted by the sight of his aunt walking towards him. A bad feeling formed in the pit of his stomach when he noticed the unsettling expression on her face. "Sebastian, sweetheart, there's um, there's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" He asked cautiously, abandoning his seat and stepping closer to Arielle.

She grabbed his arm and pulled him into a more private corner of the room. "I just got off the phone with my sister-"

"What? Why were you talking to my mother?" Sebastian demanded.

"Would you please just listen to me? Your mom called me because…it's about your father. I'm really sorry." Her eyes welled with tears as she looked up at him.

He shook his head, refusing to acknowledge her words. "No. No. He's not-he can't be dead."

"He didn't suffer. It was quick." Arielle tried to grab hold of her nephew's hands, but he pulled away.

Sebastian felt a heavy compression in his chest, restricting his ability to breathe. Ignoring this, he turned around and sprinted for the exit. He ran and ran and ran. He didn't stop until his legs gave out underneath him, forcing him onto his knees in the middle of what looked like it could have been an abandoned highway.

The sensation in his chest returned, only now it was ten times worse. Gasping for breath, Sebastian went down on his hands and knees.

The last thing he remembered was the familiar sound of a car engine before his vision went to black and his body shut down.

…

**A/N: Reading it back, the ending seems really dramatic, but I personally blame a toxic combination of not enough sleep and coffee. Please tell me what you guys thought! I was so damn unsure when writing the interactions between Blaine and Seb. I have no idea why, but it's probably the hardest thing for me to figure out now. **

**Anywho, if there's anything you guys would like to see in future chapters, please let me know. This story isn't set in stone yet and the possibilities are pretty much endless : )**


	9. Chapter 9

"_Son, I would hate to alarm you, but I don't think you're going to be catching any fish if your hook is still lying on the dock. Last I checked, the fish prefer to stay in the water." William smiled with a sideways glance at his son. _

"_But if I throw the hook in, then it will poke the fish." Sebastian replied with wide blinking eyes. _

"_Yes, I know that. Were you listening at all when I explained the purpose of this activity?"_

"_Yes! You said that we were coming to see fishies!" The little boy grinned. _

"_That was...sort of what I said. You know what? Why don't I do the fishing and you sit over there and see if you can pet one." William snorted._

"_Really? You think I could? But they're so fast." Sebastian frowned. _

"_What's the worst thing that could happen? Besides you failing, of course. Just try and try again; statiscally speaking, at some point you will succeed." _

"_Okay. Do you think I could take one home? I always wanted a goldfish." His eyes brightened at the thought._

"_I can assure you that there are no goldfish living in this lake. But if you can manage to catch one with nothing more than your bare hands, you get to take it home and keep it as a pet." William chuckled. For a six-year old his son was very ambitious. _

_At his words, Sebastian grinned and leaned over the edge of the dock, the water levels reaching his upper arms. Every time he saw little rays of sun being reflected in the water, he knew that it had to be a fish, since he'd heard somewhere the scales were reflective. Thus when he saw little yellow patches near the surface of the water, he would reach under and attempt to grab the aquatic animal. After half an hour of this, the boy's clothes were soaked down to his waist, and his hands had become wrinkly. Still, his determination barely wavered. He sincerely believed that his daddy knew everything, so if he said that Sebastian would eventually succeed if he just kept trying, then there was nothing to do except to keep trying._

"_How are things going over there, kiddo?" William asked, bemused by the look of concentration on his son's face. _

"_Good. I almost touched one a little while ago." _

"_See? You're making progress." _

_Sebastian nodded enthusiastically before diverting his attention back to the water, more determined than ever. When he looked down, he noticed a bluish glint in the water instead of the usual yellow one. And so, figuring that the blue fish was particularly special, he reached into the water with reflexes faster than he knew he possessed, and grabbed hold of his target. A moment passed before he realized what had happened and quickly pulled the animal out of the water. His eyes went wide when he caught sight of the intricate patterns on the fish's body, and he couldn't help but squeal. _

_William nearly choked on the beer he was taking a sip of. He could hardly believe his eyes; his son had actually managed to catch a fish with nothing more than his tiny hands. "How did you do that?"_

"_I did what you said. I just kept trying." Sebastian grinned proudly. His smile faded however when he noticed that the small animal he was grasping in his hand looked miserable. It was shaking and writhing and looked like it couldn't breathe. With a gigantic sigh, he knelt back down by the edge of the dock and released the fish back into the water. _

"_Why did you let it go?" William frowned at him._

"_He couldn't breathe. Fish don't have lungs, you know." The boy pouted. _

"_Yes, I am well aware of that," he chuckled, "but do you know that you were supposed to fill this bucket with water and keep the fish in there until we got home?" He held the green container up for his son to see._

"_Oh come on!" Sebastian exclaimed, slapping himself on the forehead. _

_William burst out laughing. The little boy glared at him, which only made him laugh harder. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have laughed." Clearing his throat, he forced his lips back into a line, but there was no mistaking the amusement in his eyes. _

"_Why didn't you tell me we brought a bucket?" Sebastian moaned, his six-year old features resembling the look most men got when their girlfriends broke up with them for the first time._

"_I assumed you knew," his father shrugged, "how about we just head over to the pet shop and buy you a goldfish instead?"_

"_Really?" The light came back to the boy's eyes._

"_Yup. You even get to pick the tank." William smiled. In many ways he admired Sebastian more than he did his other two children, but whenever this thought crossed his mind, it made him immensely sad. These were one of the many moments that he wished he didn't know the truth. _

"_Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Sebastian all but jumped onto his lap, "I love you so much, Daddy." _

_William ruffled the boy's hair and grinned. "Come on, we better get going. It'll be dark soon." He desperately wanted to tell his son how much he meant to him, how much he loved him. But he couldn't. It wasn't fair, not to either of them._

_William knew that Sebastian wondered why he didn't treat him like the other two; why he spoke differently to him than he did to his other children. And as much as it broke his heart to see the hurt look on his beautiful boy's face, the truth would only destroy him. Both of them. _

**...**

"Dad!" Sebastian gasped and opened his eyes. He sat upright and tried to gain control of his breathing. Looking around him, he finally realized where he was. One of his most hated places on earth. The hospital.

Anger boiled up inside of him as he worked frantically to remove the numerous wires from his arms and chest. He was busy struggling with a particularly stubborn one when his aunt entered the room and froze. She rushed forward and grabbed her nephew by the shoulders, pushing him back down onto the bed. "Don't even think about it," Arielle warned, "you are not going anywhere. I don't care what you have to say about it; you just scared me half to death and I am not letting you out of this hospital until the _doctor _tells me that you are free to go. So you better suck it up and live with it because you lied to me!"

"What are you talking about?" Sebastian asked, clutching his chest. His heart rate was increasing, and his ability to breathe was therefore decreasing.

"According to the doctor, you haven't been on any heart medication for over two years! How could you be so reckless, Sebastian? I thought you were smarter than this." She heaved a sigh and took a seat next to the bed.

"I was going to talk to you, I swear. I just-there was never a right time and I was scared and-"

"Oh, trust me, I know what it's like to be scared. For example a day ago when the doctors told me that they didn't know if you would pull through! Do you understand what I'm saying? They told me that there was an 85% percent chance you were going to die!" Arielle was on the verge of tears.

"Die? Why would I die?" Sebastian frowned and reached for his aunt's hand.

"Sweetheart, don't you understand?" She touched his cheek, "You went into sudden cardiac arrest. If the man who almost hit you with his car wasn't a paramedic, then you would be dead right now. Your heart barely survived the trip to the hospital. The surgeon said that you're lucky you didn't suffer any brain damage."

"I-what? But I'm only twenty, they said that stuff isn't supposed to happen until I'm older."

"This disease is very unpredictable, Sebastian. Anything could happen at any given moment, and there's no way to know, and therefore no way to prevent it. Treatment is the only way to stop this thing from killing you."

"I didn't do it on purpose, I really didn't. It's just that there was no way for me to receive the treatment I needed since I'm flat broke, and that stuff is really expensive." He sighed and refused to meet her gaze, feeling guilty about omitting the rest of the truth.

"But I thought that health care was free in France?"

"It is, but uh, not to me. Kylien and I got ourselves into some pretty serious debt with the French government and they refused to pay for our-I mean my medication. There was nothing I could do." Sebastian whispered.

"Yes, there was," Arielle sat down next to him on the bed. "You could have come to me. You should have come to me. You know I'd be happy to give you the money."

"That's the thing, I didn't want you to. I didn't want anyone to. This is my problem, I'm the one that needs to fix this...but you don't understand how badly I've screwed myself up." He bowed his head in what Arielle perceived as shame.

"I don't care what you think is wrong with you, as long as you're still breathing and capable of thinking for yourself, then there is still hope. There is still a chance, and I'll be damned if you don't take it. This is the time for you to get up and fight, just not yourself. Fight this disease, fight for your life. Please, Sebastian, I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you."

He was silent for a moment. "Was it a dream? Or is my dad really dead?"

His aunt looked up at him with sad eyes and he knew that it was all true. It wasn't just a figment of his imagination; his dad was really gone. Sebastian closed his eyes as he thought about his dream. It was one of his favorite memories of his father. For as long as he lived, he would never forget that day. "I'm really sorry. I knew you wouldn't take it well...I was almost too afraid to tell you."

"I would have found out eventually," he mumbled, "but you shouldn't be sorry. I shouldn't either, but I am. There was still so much to be resolved between the two of us; so much that I still wanted to tell him, to ask him. This really sucks." His eyes filled with tears and he let out a deep breath.

"There's someone here who would very much like to see you. I think it would be good for you to talk to them." Arielle smiled as she removed herself from the edge of the hospital bed and moved towards the door.

"Someone who wants to see me? Who is it?" He frowned.

"Hello, Sebastian." A woman appeared behind Arielle.

"Mom?" Sebastian breathed. His jaw dropped slightly as he took in the sight of Melina Smythe. It had been more than three years since the last time they had seen each other, and he couldn't help but notice how different she looked. Her hair was shorter and darker, and she had lost some weight, making her appear unhealthily skinny. Her eyes seemed somehow smaller, with dark bags underneath.

Despite this though, Sebastian still thought she looked beautiful.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" She smiled, hesitant to approach him. "I know you probably don't want to see me right now, or ever really, but Arielle told me what happened and...well, I got scared. I thought I was going to lose you too."

"I was under the impression that you already had." He said, his expression cold.

"Sebastian-"

"No. You forfeited your right to care about me the day I walked out of that house and you didn't attempt to stop me. And fine, I get that maybe you thought it was for the best if I left. I can even wrap my head around the fact that Dad probably told you not to contact me; I suspected that he would do something like that. But I am your _son_; you brought me into this damn world. How could you not even care a little bit? You never even tried to contact me. Not once." He paused momentarily. "Do you know how old I was when you last saw me?"

Melina nodded. "You were seventeen."

"Correct. My birthday is in two months; do you know how old I'll be then?"

She was slightly more hesitant. "You'll be twenty-one."

"That's right. An adult in every sense of the word. Which means that it's been almost four years since the last time you saw me. Why the hell do you care now?"

"I never stopped caring, Sebastian. Not for one second. But I can see why you would think that. Yes, I know that we haven't spoken in a while, but just because I didn't talk to you doesn't mean I didn't talk to other people." She explained.

Arielle nodded. "It was your mother who contacted me shortly before you turned eighteen. She explained what had happened, and asked me if I would care look after you for a while. You're probably mad that I never told you, but sweetheart if I did, then you would never have agreed to come stay with me."

"Did you actually want me there at all?" Sebastian almost didn't want to know. Whoever said that honesty is the best policy is a retard. He doubted that he could handle any more 'truth'.

"Of course I did! How could you even question that?" His aunt looked hurt. "I love you like you're my own damn child. Never ask me that again."

Sebastian felt like an idiot. "I'm sorry, you're right, that was uncalled for. I'm just confused right now. Why didn't you just come and talk to me yourself? I spent years thinking that you didn't give a crap about me. I fucking tried to kill myself and you said nothing!"

"I didn't know about that until after you had left! Your father, as well as your brother and sister, kept it a secret from me. They told me that you were expelled from Dalton because you were caught using steroids on school property. I didn't believe them, so I contacted the school board and asked to speak to the dean. It took a while for him to get back to me, and by the time he did, you were already gone."

"But what about after that? Why didn't you come looking for me?"

"I did. You just never saw me." Melina said, cautiously approaching her son, "I didn't know any of your friends, so I had no way of knowing where you would be staying. Instead I decided to look for you somewhere I knew you frequented; The Lima Bean. For about two hours every day for a week, I waited there for you. By the end of the seventh day, I was starting to suspect that you had left town. But then it happened; I saw you. You were alone, so I decided to come talk to you...that is, until someone else sat beside you. It was a teenage boy around your age, he was tall with blonde hair-"

"Jeff." He stated.

"Right. Well anyway, I saw you smile when he came near you, and it was a real smile. Something I hadn't seen on your face in years. I figured that it meant you were better off without me-"

"Better off without my mother?"

Melina sighed as she sat down next to her son. "I know that none of it makes sense to you, heck, I don't understand it either. But back then, I did. I really believed that-that if I tried to approach you, you would walk away. That you would be angry at me for letting your father hurt you."

Sebastian winced at her words. "Don't talk about him like that."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

Arielle stepped forward. "What did you mean by that? When you said that William hurt him?"

Melina frowned at her sister. "He never told you?"

"No, he didn't." She turned to her nephew. "Sebastian?"

He blinked. "I-I assumed you knew. I mean-what exactly did my mom tell you about the reason I left?"

"She said that you two had gotten into a fight. I didn't think she meant...oh." Arielle brought her hand up to her mouth and stared at Melina. "You let that man hurt this child?"

"'That man' is dead, so please-please just stop." Sebastian said, feeling uncomfortable. He moved away from his mother and fought the urge to cry.

"Why are you defending him?" Arielle stared at him as if he were a cow that had just given birth to a unicorn.

"Because he can't defend himself. Not anymore." He replied in a small voice.

"You're right, I'm being really insensitive." She turned to her sister, "Mel, I think you should leave. Now is not a very good time."

Melina nodded sadly. "Okay. It was good seeing you, even under these unfortunate circumstances." She gave one last smile to her son before departing from the room.

"Did you tell her about my going into cardiac arrest?" Sebastian asked as soon as his mother had left.

Arielle shook her head. "No. I told her you got hit by a car and hit your head. That's also what I told Sarah, Riley and Alex. I wasn't sure if you'd want them to know."

"Thank you. I wouldn't have wanted them to. People always look at you different when they know things like that." He heaved a sigh. "Oh crap! I was supposed to work tonight."

"I've already called Hal to let him know. He told me to tell you to get better soon."

Sebastian reached for his aunt's hand, taking it in his own and squeezing gently. "Why couldn't you have been my mother?"

Arielle smiled and kissed his forehead. "Because we would have driven each other absolutely crazy. I've been told you and I are a lot alike."

He grinned."I drive everyone crazy. I'm just awesome that way." Sebastian hesitated. "I'm really sorry for not being honest with you. There's so much that I want to tell you, that you don't know. That no one knows. But some things are just never meant to be shared."

"If it's too hard, then I understand. But you need to know that I will _always _listen to anything you talk to me about. There is absolutely nothing you should be too ashamed or embarrassed to tell me. Nothing."

"I know, I know. It's just...if I heard someone I care about tell me things like that, things that I don't know how to talk about...I don't think I'd handle it all that well. Or at all, really. It's more than just things that happened to me, or things that I did, or things that other people did to me. It's also things that I think about; things I don't want to think about; things that-that make me feel hopeless; that eat away at me, haunting me every single day." He paused. "There will never be a way to talk about those things, because no language will ever contain the right words required to make someone understand. That's why I never bother to explain; because people have this annoying tendency to interpret things incorrectly. Maybe it's not their fault; even a one-dimensional word can have more than one meaning. It just depends on who you ask."

Even though Sebastian's words saddened his aunt, she let him talk. She knew how important it was for him to let it out; even if it was only a portion. Arielle would never admit it, but secretly she was glad that her nephew wasn't able to talk to her about the things he really needed to say. Not because she didn't want him to say it, but more that she didn't want him to say it _to her_. She loved him almost as much as she loved her own children, and frustration of not being able to help him would wear her out. "You're right, there aren't enough words in the English language. If there were, only then would I be able to tell you how much I love you, Sebastian. You mean more to me than you could ever know. Have you ever gotten a call from the hospital to hear that someone so special to you is in danger of losing their life? Please don't let the next call come from the morgue."

"I won't. And I'm sorry." Sebastian leaned forward and hugged her. He didn't care what any birth certificate said; in that moment Arielle Burke felt more like his mother than Melina Smythe ever had. "I love you too." He whispered into her hair.

"I know you do. I know." She held him tight, afraid to let go. It was only when she realized there was someone waiting for her call that she pulled away and smiled at him. "I have to leave for a little while. But I'll come back as soon as possible, okay? You just focus on getting better." She kissed his forehead again.

He returned her smile and watched her go. Sebastian made sure that she was too far gone to see him before he sat upright, too frustrated and thoughtful to lie down any longer. He did his best to keep his thoughts away from his father. He didn't want to let himself think about it; if he did, then he would no doubt start crying. And every time he allowed himself to cry, it was almost impossible to stop.

Sebastian thought about Kylien. He would have given anything in that moment to be able to see his best friend again. Even if it was only for a moment. No one knew him better than Kylien did, and therefore he was the only person capable of making him feel better. Despite this, Sebastian made a mental decision to not tell his French friend about this. It would only upset him, and nothing good ever came from upsetting Kylien Clément.

As Sebastian sat with his back against the wall, his eyes looking up at the ceiling, he realized that it hadn't occurred to him to ask how it had happened. How his father had died. It seemed like the first thing someone would want to know, and yet, it had never even crossed his mind.

_Maybe I don't want to know. Maybe its best I never do, _Sebastian thought.

He wasn't sure why, but his thoughts suddenly drifted to Blaine. He wondered if Blaine knew the reason he had suddenly ran out on him the day before. Once again, he couldn't understand why, but he felt bad for abandoning him like that. It seemed crazy to even consider it, but Sebastian couldn't help but wonder if there was a chance for the two of them to start over. To put the past behind them and start all over again. A clean slate. Obviously he and Blaine would never be anything more friends; he was not going to make the mistake of falling in love with the man again. But maybe they could get back to what they had been before Sebastian had let his stupid heart get in the way. Friends.

Blaine had been a really good friend to him once upon a time. Although, he also couldn't help but question the truth behind that. More than once it had seemed like what Karofsky had told him all those years ago was actually true: that Blaine had only been using him. But if this were true, then what the hell had he used Sebastian for? What purpose would faking a friendship have served him? It just didn't make any sense. Then again, whenever he thought back to that period of his life, especially in relation to Blaine Anderson, nothing ever did. Make sense, that is.

"Hello, stranger." A voice startled him out of his thoughts.

Sebastian turned to see a smiling Adam. Only, it took him a moment to recognize the Brit, since the latter no longer possessed his trademark blonde curls. He had cut his hair short. Sebastian wasn't sure why this bothered him so much. With a mental snort he realized that there were a lot of things he was uncertain about today. "Hey. I honestly did not expect to see you here."

"I could go if you want."

"No!" Sebastian said a little too quickly. "I just meant that you surprised me."

"Ah. Well even home-wreckers deserve some visitors when bed-ridden in a hospital." Adam said as he took a step forward.

When Sebastian turned away, violently fighting the urge to blush, Adam laughed nervously. "That was a joke. Albeit a really bad one, but a joke nonetheless." He took a seat on the chair that had been previously occupied by Arielle. "How are you feeling?"

Sebastian shrugged, "Fine, I guess. I'm alive, so that's a bonus."

"What exactly happened? The only thing that my mum told me was that you had been in an accident." Adam looked at his hands. "At the time you were still in critical condition, so you can imagine the look on her face when she suddenly went pale and said that you-well, you know. I of course assumed the worst. I thought for sure that you were..." He trailed off.

Sebastian found himself smiling. "Let me guess: you realized you were madly in love with me, but because of the tragedy that had just befallen this earth, you would never have the chance to tell me?"

"Not quite." Adam grinned, "but I do remember feeling moderately sad."

Laughing, Sebastian shoved his shoulder gently. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you just said. I was too distracted by your lack of hair."

"Oh that," he reached for his head self-consciously, "I decided that it was time for a change. My mother hates it, but I don't mind it too much."

"I think it looks cute-I mean, it suits you. Please ignore everything that comes out of my mouth; I blame the drugs."

Adam chuckled. "So you never actually told me what happened."

"Um, right." Sebastian had no idea how he was going to lie his way through this, "I was running across the road, forgot to check the oncoming traffic, and got hit. The impact wasn't too bad, but I hit my head when I landed."

"Oh. How come they didn't bandage it up like they do on television?" His eyes drifted to Sebastian's head.

"Uh." _Crap. _"It was more of an internal injury. Luckily, it wasn't hard enough to crack my skull or anything."

"Then why were you in critical condition?" Adam frowned.

"Internal bleeding." He was running out of excuses.

Sebastian could see that Adam wasn't buying it, but luckily for him the latter didn't press the matter any further. Instead, he changed the subject, "Look, I wanted to apologize if I made you believe that I was angry, or blamed you for anything. I'm not and I don't. I wanted to tell you before, but I didn't. And then you got into the accident, and my mum gave me that look, and I thought...my point is just that I'm sorry for saying the things I did. It was cruel of me to call you a liar and bad friend, because you're neither. I could see that you liked him, and I don't blame you for that."

"I didn't. Like him, I mean. I was just...lonely, I guess, But that doesn't excuse what I did. And yes, I am a bad friend."

"No, you're not. It took me a while to realize the situation that you were put in, and how hard it must have been for you. But, you know, it doesn't matter anymore. It's all in the past now." Adam smiled. "I feel like I have to warn you that you and your family have officially been invited to my mother's house for Christmas. I don't think your poor aunt stood a chance in saying no to her."

Sebastian grinned. "I don't think Arielle would have wanted to say no. Seriously, those two are like sisters. Or maybe they're closeted lesbians." He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

Adam looked horrified for a moment, then laughed. "Don't even go there. That would be so...strange."

Sebastian made a face. "Um, yeah, Forget I said anything."

"It's too late for that. The mental images are now engraved into my brain."

"Pervert." Sebastian teased.

"Says the one who just accused his aunt of being a lesbian and of having a secret relationship with my mother. Oh wow, we really need to change the subject."

"Well you can count me in for Christmas at Mrs. Crawford's house. Just one question: when exactly is Christmas? I don't know what the date today is." He admitted sheepishly.

"Next week. My sister will be there too." Adam grinned.

"I did not know that you had a sister," Sebastian blinked, "older or younger?"

"Younger. She's currently studying at Oxford. Little genius, that bird."

Sebastian laughed. "Why Oxford?"

"What do you mean?" The blonde Englishman was thoroughly confused.

"I don't know, I've heard that Crawford is the better school." He shrugged innocently.

"I suppose that depends on your opinion-" Adam suddenly got the joke. "Oh haha, you're hilarious."

"Thank you." Sebastian grinned cheekily.

Even though he pretended not to, Adam could tell that something was different in Sebastian's eyes. He knew that, for now at least, he was going to have to feign ignorance to the passing of William Smythe. He was going to have to pretend that he didn't know Sebastian and his father had never gotten along, and therefore the former would never have had the chance to say goodbye.

It was obvious that Sebastian was repressing the grief. Adam couldn't help but wonder how long it would take for him to break.


	10. Chapter 10

"Thanks for letting me do this. I can't tell you how much it means to me; how much _you _mean to me." Blaine smiled sweetly and placed a kiss on Kurt's cheek.

"It's amazing how sentimental everyone gets at Christmas," Kurt shook his head and chuckled, "but to tell you the truth, I love it. And I love you."

"I love you, too." Blaine leaned in for another kiss, but stopped short at the sound of Rachel clearing her throat.

"There is no time for your PDGay," Rachel told them, both annoyed and frustrated, "don't you two realize that your families will be here in _30 minutes_? Nothing is ready yet!"

"Rachel, calm down. It's just dinner." Blaine tried to reassure her, not entirely sure why she was getting so worked up.

"She's just nervous because Finn is coming. They haven't seen each other in like a year." Kurt explained, reading Blaine's mind.

"Has it really been that long?" He blinked.

"If you must know, yes, it has been that long. But I am fine; I'm fine. I'm just...tired. Yes, just tired." Rachel carried on talking to herself as she exited the room and disappeared behind her curtain.

Blaine and Kurt exchanged looks. "Family reunions are so overrated." Kurt sighed.

"Oh come on, I know you're excited to see your dad again. And Finn. And Carole."

"Of course I want to see them. But whenever your family and my family try to do something together, something always goes wrong."

"You're overreacting; everything will be fine." Blaine assured him with a warm smile.

"Am I, Blaine? Am I really? Don't you remember Thanksgiving last year when my dad and your mom got into such a big fight that they refused to be in the same room together? Or the Christmas before that when your dad wouldn't even let me come near you?"

"That was different. We weren't dating then," Blaine's smile faltered at the memory, but he quickly repressed it and took hold of Kurt's hands. "Who cares what they think anyway? It's you and me, remember? We can get through anything together; we already have."

Kurt nodded, finally giving in to his boyfriend's words, but a sudden realization made him frown. "What do you mean by 'who cares what they think'? Is there something you want to tell me? Do your parents hate me?"

"No, they don't hate you, Kurt. You know that. I'm pretty sure that my mom wishes she had given birth to you instead," Blaine snorted, "it's just that..."

"It's just that what?"

"Well, they strongly believe that we're going to break up." He admitted, scratching his head nervously.

"Why would we break up? No. They can't seriously believe that. I still think they don't like me." Kurt crossed his arms over his chest.

"If you think about it, I mean, it's not impossible to understand where they're coming from. We have broken up before, and technically, we have been friends longer than we've been dating, so..."

"So _what_?"

"I don't know, maybe...maybe they just don't think that we're right for each other." Blaine instantly regretted his words when he saw the hurt look on Kurt's face.

"Is that what _you _believe? That we're not right for each other?"

"What? No! Why would you-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. It's just the impression that my mom gave me, I swear. I don't doubt us for even a second." Blaine used his thumb to gently stroke Kurt's cheek.

"Good. Because you know that I'm yours and only yours."

"And I'm yours." Blaine whispered, leaning forward to wrap his arms around the other male.

"Are you two kidding me?" Rachel demanded, re-entering the room, "leave all the cute boyfriend stuff for dinner please. Right now one of you has to help me figure out how to make apple pie."

Blaine and Kurt exchanged another look. "You know what? I really wish I could help, but I just realized that I need to get to Starbucks. Like, right now." Blaine all but ran for the door.

"Blaine!" Kurt and Rachel exclaimed simultaneously.

Grinning, the raven-haired Anderson paused to look at them. "I'll be right back. You know how I get when I don't ingest my daily amount of caffeine."

"We have coffee here." Rachel insisted.

"No we don't." With that, Blaine had successfully managed to exit the apartment. Once outside, he hugged himself and raced over to his car. _December weather_, he complained.

Blaine would never admit it out loud, but if he were being honest with himself, he knew that he wasn't all that excited to see his parents. They had done nothing but tell him off when they found out seven months ago that him and Kurt had gotten back together. Blaine understood that their intentions were good, but it didn't do anything to mend his broken feelings. He loved his parents as much as the next guy, but the older he got, the less they seemed to understand.

Another thing Blaine would never admit was the real reason that his relationship with his parents had gotten so...imbalanced. He knew it, they knew it, and yet, no one ever spoke of it.

Blaine emitted a silent thank you as he parked his car on the side of the road and ran across the street to one of his favorite places on earth: Starbucks. Well, any place that served cappuccinos was his favorite place on earth. He was well past being in denial about his addiction. No, he was at the stage where he believed that all hope of a normal life had abandoned him, and therefore the only way to make things better was to encourage his unhealthy coffee obsession with even more coffee. Blaine chuckled to himself when he realized that Kurt was indeed right: he was a drama queen.

When he got to the front of the line, he placed his order and gave the barista his name to write on the cup. Humming for no apparent reason, Blaine removed his phone from his pocket to see if his boyfriend had texted him any death threats in the last few minutes. Sure enough, Kurt had indeed sent him a message.

_I swear, if you are not back here before our parents arrive, I will not only break up with you so bad that your unborn children will cry, but I will also make sure that you are so emotionally scarred, you will actually find Rachel attractive! Love you xx_

Blaine hid his laughter in a very loud and very fake coughing fit. No one payed him any attention though, they were too busy complaining about the weather.

"I thought I might find you here." A smug voice startled him. Blaine didn't even have to look to know exactly who that voice belonged to.

"Hi again, Sebastian." Despite his throat's sudden strike against speaking, he managed to get the words out.

Sebastian's smile widened as he took a step toward the shorter brunette. "Shouldn't you be in Ohio with your family or something?"

"Uh," Blaine's throat went dry again. He had no idea why he was freezing up like this. Oh wait, yes he did. He could remember the last time he had seen Sebastian smile at him like that as if it were only yesterday. It had been in the hospital...almost three years ago. "My parents are coming here."

Upon his words, Blaine noticed that the corner of Sebastian's mouth acquired an almost imperceptible twitch. "So then what are exactly are you doing here all by yourself on Christmas Eve?"

"I don't know how to make apple pie." The words were out before he could stop them. Blaine resisted the urge to slap himself.

Sebastian arched an eyebrow. "Okaaay. Well I'm here to get coffee. That's what normal people do at Starbucks."

Blaine chuckled nervously. "I am here. I mean, to get coffee. Wow, today is not my day."

"How much have you had to drink exactly?" Sebastian was doing a very bad job of hiding his amusement.

"Nothing, unfortunately. But now that you mention it, that may be exactly what I need to get through dinner with my parents."

"Hmmm, charming people, your folks. How are they, by the way?"

Blaine was more than a little surprised by the question. "They, uh, they're good. They got back together two years ago. All it took for them to reconcile their marriage was for me to get out of the house."

Despite Blaine having meant it as a joke, Sebastian could see the truth in his eyes. He really did blame himself for his parents' divorce. "Well, at least you're a free man now. I mean independent, not, you know, single." Sebastian cleared his throat awkwardly.

"Yup, independent, not single," once again, Blaine felt like an idiot. _Why can't I just say something that doesn't make me sound like a dimwit? _"How about you? Are you seeing anybody?"

"Why?" Sebastian blinked.

"Just asking." He shrugged.

Before either of them could say anything else, they heard someone calling Blaine's name. Turning around, the latter realized that his coffee order was ready. He thanked the barista as he grabbed the cup, loving the way it warmed his hands. Blaine decided to change the subject. "So, what are you doing for Christmas?"

"Just spending the day with some people. And some other people." Sebastian replied, the smile returning to his features.

"You make it sound like you're going to be dining with the CIA." A pause. "You aren't, are you?"

"Nope. These women are about ten times scarier than the government will ever be." Sebastian grinned.

"Well then they're probably related to you."

Still grinning, Sebastian nodded slowly. "Two of them. Do you, uh, want to, uh, sit down?" He gestured to the small circular tables in the corner.

Blaine hesitated for a second, remembering Kurt waiting for him back at his apartment. But then he realized who was standing right in front of him, and he broke out into a smile. "Yeah. I got some time to kill."

"Cool." He returned the smile and extended his arm in an act of chivalry. Blaine resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he chuckled and led the way the way to one of the tables. Feeling vengeful, the shorter male pulled out a chair and smiled condescendingly at Sebastian, insinuating that he wanted him to sit down. Sebastian blinked repeatedly before turning around and sitting down at a completely different table. Blaine laughed and sat down across from him.

"Can I ask you something?" Blaine wondered.

"You just did." He pointed out.

"I meant can I ask you something else?"

"You just did." Sebastian repeated.

"Are you _sure_ that you're twenty?" Blaine asked dryly.

"Was that your question? Because you and I were born in the same year, so if you're twenty, then chances are so am I."

"Sebastian." Blaine groaned, putting his elbows down on the table.

"Fine," he heaved a dramatic sigh, "you get to ask me one question."

"Where did you go last week? At the charity thing, I mean. One second you were there, and the next, you weren't."

"Oh, that," Sebastian swallowed, "I just, I had to get somewhere. I mean, I-I forgot...umm."

Blaine frowned at Sebastian's inability to form words, but decided that he should rather change the subject. Again. "I was just asking because this little girl came up to me and said that she had seen me talking to you and she wanted to know where you were."

"A little girl?" He frowned, "do you mean Abena?"

"She didn't tell me her name, but I assume that's her. She seemed pretty sad when I told her that you had left."

Sebastian was suddenly overcome with guilt. He had completely forgotten about her after Arielle had told him about his dad. _Well now I feel like absolute crap_, he groaned internally, _I made a little girl unhappy. What's next, killing someone's cat? Dropping a baby? Stealing from a charity? Becoming a pyromaniac? I might as well just turn myself in already. A life behind bars, how poetic...wow, you really are weird...and dramatic...and just plain stupid. _After he was done insulting himself, he realized that he still hadn't said anything. "I forgot about that, too."

Blaine nodded thoughtfully as if Sebastian had actually said something interesting. "So, what did you do in France for over two years? Eat snails?"

Sebastian snorted. "Yuck. Have you actually ever tried it?"

"Yes."

"Well I haven't, and I have no intention of doing so either. Frogs, snails and bugs were never meant to be ingested." He pulled a face.

"Bugs? Who said anything about bugs? Anyway, I was only joking about the snails. What did you really do then?"

"I did a lot of things. Good things, bad things, stupid things...all kinds of things."

"That's very, uh, vague," Blaine noted. His eyes brightened suddenly, "you haven't by any chance been to Ohio recently, have you?"

"No. Why?"

"Jeff and I went back there a couple months ago, and we saw that they had encased some of the former Warblers' blazers and hung them up on the walls in the practice room. They even sewed the initials onto the back so that you can tell whose is whose."

"Really? That's awesome," Sebastian grinned, "no doubt your name is up there."

"Yup, the letters _B.D.A _look amazing in red!" He exclaimed. "You wanna know what else looks good in red?"

"Lifeguards?"

"Well, yeah, but that's not exactly what I meant. I was actually referring to the blazer right next to mine. The one with the letters _S.S._"

It took a few moments for Sebastian to comprehend the words. "Wait, _me? _Why would they put my initials up there?"

"Because you were the first solo captain and because you led the Warblers all the way to Regionals. If that's not enough reason to overlook a criminal charge or two, I don't know what is."

"Wow..."

"The only problem is that you kind of changed your last name, so half of it probably isn't accurate anymore. But it's the thought that counts." Blaine smiled, happy that the news had had such a good effect on Sebastian.

"Actually," Sebastian blinked, "it isn't inaccurate. I was going to legally change my last name to Burke, but then I changed my mind and went with my grandfather's name instead. My passport reads Sebastian St. Romain."

"That's pretty lucky," he raised his eyebrows, "I don't think I even have a passport."

Sebastian couldn't help but laugh at Blaine's random comment. "I'll keep that in mind if I ever have the urge to smuggle you out of the country."

"Yeah, thanks," he snorted, "I'll be right back." Blaine gestured to the men's room.

"No, it's fine, go right ahead. Of course I realize that we gay guys have to powder our noses every once in a while." Sebastian smirked. Blaine ignored him.

The smile didn't leave Sebastian's face as he watched the shorter male walk into the bathroom. In that moment he knew that he had done the right thing by trying to start over with Blaine. It was evident despite the awkward tension that would arise occasionally, there was a chance that the pair could indeed rekindle whatever form of friendship that had existed between them. At least, it was obvious to Sebastian, who knew that he was just being hopeful, but he also knew that he couldn't help it. He wasn't taking the death of his father very well and was therefore desperate to hold on to any kind of joy he could get his hands on. Metaphorically speaking, of course. He wasn't about to grab hold of Blaine...that would just be weird.

Sebastian frowned when he felt the table begin to vibrate. Looking down, he realized that Blaine had left his phone here. Craning his neck, he bent forward to see if the phone was ringing or if it was just some sort of alert. It turned out to be the latter. Sebastian never intended to read the text, but when it popped up on the screen, his curiosity got the better of him. The message was from Kurt.

_Blaine Devon Anderson! Where the hell are you?! Your parents are here! I repeat: YOUR PARENTS ARE HERE! You better get your butt over here right now!...Okay, that was a little mean. It's just that, after what you told me about them thinking we're going to break up again, well, I don't really know what to say to them. Seven months isn't all that long I guess, but if you add the one and a half years we dated before, it's a pretty long time. Wow, I think this is the lengthiest text I have ever written. Please bring me back a latte! Still love you xx_

Amusement, confusion, guilt. The emotions, in order, that flashed through Sebastian after reading Kurt's message. He would have rather made out with Justin Bieber than admit to anyone that he had actually always found Kurt Hummel quite...endearing. Sebastian didn't hate him nearly as much as he pretended to, but that didn't mean he liked him either. And after reading the message Kurt had just sent to Blaine, he couldn't help but smile at the relationship that he imagined the two shared. Of course there were other feelings mixed in there as well, but he preferred not to dwell on them.

The part that confused Sebastian was the line, 'seven months isn't all that long I guess'. He would have thought that they would be discussing wedding plans by now, but in reality, they hadn't even been back together for a year. _Why did they wait? _He found himself wondering.

The guilt hit him when he realized that there were people awaiting Blaine's return, and here Sebastian was, keeping him from them. He knew that it wasn't really his fault, Blaine could have left at any time. But still, if he were in the latter's shoes, he would have felt too guilty to leave. Sebastian's train of thought jumped again, this time to a question. Does Blaine actually feel guilty?

"Sorry I took so long, the lock got jammed and I was stuck. It was not pleasant." Blaine grimaced, startling Sebastian out of his thoughts.

"It's cool, I was...here. Look, are you sure that you have nowhere else that you have to be? I mean, it is getting dark, and today is Christmas Eve."

"Well, my parents are probably at the apartment by now, but I..." He trailed off.

"You?" Sebastian arched an eyebrow.

"I'd rather stay here with you." Blaine mumbled almost incoherently.

Those words left the taller male slightly stunned. Although, he wasn't sure why. "My aunt is probably waiting for me too, so..."

"Of course. Duh. So, um, I guess I should go now." Blaine moved to stand up. Sebastian grabbed his arm.

"I didn't mean it that way. And wow, déjà vu much?"

Blaine didn't sit back down. "No, you should get back to your family. I-it's not right of me to keep you."

"You're not keeping me from anything. Despite what Arielle seems to think, I am actually a grown man capable of making his own decisions. Unlike you, I've never have anyone waiting for me." Sebastian shrugged.

He shook his head, narrowing his eyes dubiously. "I can assure you that you are wrong about that. I think that anyone who ever made the mistake of waiting for _you _learnt a very important lesson."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"A lot of people waited, but you never came back." Blaine said in a loud whisper.

Sebastian opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. It had never occurred to him before that leaving could have had this effect on the people he had left behind. Anger; yeah, that was the effect. "But you knew, Blaine. You knew what I wanted to do, you knew of my intention to not come back. And yet, you still didn't ask me to stay."

"Would you? If I had asked you, if I had gone down on my knees and begged, would you actually have listened?"

Sebastian rose from his chair and took a step toward Blaine. "Wouldn't it have been worth it to at least try? Shouldn't you have _wanted _to stop me?"

"It was confusing for me. I mean, I didn't want you to go. I never wanted that. But you have to understand that I couldn't be selfish anymore. If you thought that leaving Ohio, and everyone in it, forever was the right thing for you, then who was I to try and stop you? And what if I did? What if I had actually convinced you stay? You would have resented me; you already did. Why would I want that?" Blaine forced Sebastian to meet his gaze.

"No, I didn't. I could never harbour those kinds of feelings for you; that was the problem. I was always too ready to forgive you. But it never solved anything. We kept having the same fight over and over."

"People fight, Sebastian. And running away never solves anything."

"Don't you dare try to insinuate that any of this is my fault!" Sebastian narrowed his eyes.

"Any of what exactly? There is nothing left. You made sure of that." Blaine heaved a sigh.

"There you go again. You're the one who lied to me, _you're _the one who used _me_."

"I can't rewind time, I can't undo any of it. What do you want me to say?" Blaine asked sadly.

"There's nothing you can say. I know that you can't undo what you did, I knew that when I left. I just-I wanted you to care, even if it was only a little bit. For once in my fucking life I wanted someone to care about me as much as I cared about them. But you didn't. You just didn't." Sebastian was mentally telling himself to shut up; Blaine was never meant to know any of this.

"You don't think I cared? You have no idea what you're talking about." Blaine shook his head.

"I know exactly what I'm talking about." He said through clenched teeth.

"No, you don't. Do you know what I did for months after I graduated? Do you know why I barely ever speak to my parents anymore? Do you know why I worked my ass off every night for over a year to afford college because my scholarship had been retracted? Do you know why I was forced to take anti-depressants just so I could fall asleep at night? Do you know what it's like to have someone like Jeff actually _hate _you? No, you don't. You just don't know, Sebastian." Blaine looked like he was waging some kind of internal civil war on himself.

"Well you don't know what it was like for me either. I was an eighteen-year old boy all alone in a foreign country with absolutely no one to care about him, absolutely no one who would notice if he were dead."

"That wasn't my fault."

"Then who's was it? I left because you hurt me; _you _hurt me. So excuse me if logic tells me that it had to be your fault." Sebastian was gripping the side of a chair so hard that his knuckles were starting to go white.

"I didn't make you go to France. You could have gone back to your family. You said that being around them made you happy."

"Nothing made me happy! Nothing!" Sebastian exclaimed loudly. When he noticed that people were staring, he lowered his voice. "Happiness is a luxury for me, Blaine. It doesn't happen often, and when it does, I hold onto it. I hold on tight. Too tight. But it always goes away in the end, and then I'm left with nothing." He sighed, trying to lower his heart rate. "You asked me earlier if I was seeing anyone. The answer is no, I'm not. And I doubt I ever will."

Blaine didn't know what to say anymore. There were so many words, so many truths that he wanted speak, but he was too afraid. Afraid that if he started, he wouldn't stop until he had spilled everything. And that would be a huge mistake. "Is that my fault, too?" He eventually managed.

"No," Sebastian whispered, "that part isn't your fault. It's mine. I'm fucked up, no one in their right mind would ever...come near me."

"That's a lie. Don't say things like that, because it's not true." Blaine put his hand on Sebastian's arm, but the latter flinched it off.

"Oh yes it is. This isn't even the worst thing I did to myself over the course of the last few years," Sebastian whispered as he extended his right wrist and pulled up his sleeve. Blaine gasped when he saw what was being shown to him. Starting from below the palm and extending to about four inches below his wrist, the whole area was covered in gashes. There wasn't half an inch anywhere that wasn't dark red, pale pink, or somewhere in between. Blaine's eyes filled with tears as his throat emitted an involuntary choking sound. This was way worse than it had been when Sebastian was a teenager.

"I am so sorry." Blaine brought his hand up to his mouth.

Sebastian's stomach lurched when he saw the look that was being reflected in the hazel eyes he had loved once upon a time. He felt guilty. Really guilty. "No, please, don't cry. I shouldn't have done that."

Blaine barely heard him. "I did that to you." It wasn't a question.

Sebastian blinked in confusion until he realized he had more than insinuated that everything that happened after his departure from Ohio was Blaine's fault. Which it wasn't. "No, you don't understand. This wasn't-I didn't do this because of-I mean," Sebastian pulled at his hair, getting frustrated with himself for not having the right words, "Blaine, you know that I suffer from recurring clinical depression. Nothing anyone can say or do would ever be enough to stop myself from...my point is I'm sorry that I made you feel like this was your fault; that any of this was your fault. It wasn't. Sometimes bad things just happen. Please stop looking so sad." He begged.

"Ever since the day you left, I've been dreaming about what if would be like to have you back. Not once did I imagine it could be this hard. Or heartbreaking." Blaine said softly as he stared at the floor.

Sebastian surprised himself, and Blaine, when he took another step forward, closing the distance between them and putting his arms around the latter, pulling him into hug. Blaine responded by slowly placing his own arms around Sebastian's neck and burying his face in the crook of the taller male's neck. And so they stood, embracing in the corner of Starbucks.

"Don't think that this is who am," Sebastian whispered, "today-this week has just been tough, and I haven't really been myself. So just keep that in mind. I don't actually know who I am, but this isn't it."

Instead of replying, Blaine just tightened his grip on the taller boy. Sebastian responded in kind. The sound of a phone ringing pulled them apart.

"You should go. Kurt's waiting for you." Sebastian urged, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable.

Blaine didn't even think to ask how he knew that it was Kurt phoning, he just nodded absent-mindedly. "Right."

"Could I, uh, could I maybe have your number?"

Blaine looked surprised for about a second, then smiled. "Of course."

Sebastian returned the smile and handed over his phone. When a new contact had been created, and his phone was back in his pocket, he knew that they couldn't put it off any longer. It was time for them to go home. "I'm glad I ran into you. I mean, we kind of argued...again, but I don't regret coming back to New York."

"Neither do I. I mean, regret that you came back. And at some point we'll have to run out of things to fight about."

"Don't be so sure. I'm really good at finding ways to entertain myself." Sebastian's lips slowly parted into a grin.

"I'll see you around. We're bound to see each; New York isn't _that _big." Blaine smiled, slowly starting to make his way out of the building.

"Of course. I'll just stalk you on Facebook and make sure that we accidentally run into each other again."

With one last smile and a slow wave, Blaine was gone.

Sebastian heaved a sigh and sat back down, feeling slightly light-headed. He noticed that Blaine had forgotten his coffee, and deciding that it would be a waste of a fine cup of caffeine, he brought it over to his side of the table and took a sip.

Sebastian fished inside his jacket pockets until he found the container he had been looking for. He then opened it and extracted two tablets, which he then placed inside his mouth, using the coffee as a means of swallowing them. If Kylien saw him doing this, Sebastian would probably get the crap beaten out of him. _Maybe leaving France wasn't such a bad decision after all._

**...**

**A/N: I am soooo sorry that it has taken me this long to update. With my exams starting (again), I decided to wait until FanFiction had fixed all of its problems. I don't actually know if that's happened yet, since I'm still not receiving any emails, what about you guys?**

**Anyway, thanks so much for the continued support **** I love writing this story and it makes me really happy to know that people actually want to read it :D**


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